Welcome to Demonville
by enokimoto
Summary: With the country of the United States of America cut off from the rest of the world and infested with demons, anything is literally possible. People in possession of the DSP (Demon Summoning Program) now have the ability to combat this tragedy and their fate. However, this power will also allow people to change the fate of the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Day Before: Beginning of the End**

**Chapter 1**

_**Initializing analysis.**_

_**Subject: Anthony G.**_

_**Age: 15**_

_**Handle: G-Angelo**_

_**General Overlook: A rather lazy young man who does not take his future seriously. While he can be trustworthy, any appeal is masked by his animated personality and cold bluntness. **_

_No, as the title may suggest, this is not a little game made for the countless amount of smartphones out there in the world, but rather, this is a story of how literally everything I knew as 'normal' ended up getting screwed up with and turned upside-down. The funny this is, the day ended up starting off as normal and mundane as you could get; with some slight differences here and there, but nothing that would suggest anything 'other-worldly'. I was just there, minding my business as usual, sleeping if I could get the chance…_

Anthony's POV

"Anthony," said an all-too familiar voice, "get up, sleepy-head, lunch time is almost over." I felt someone scratching the pile-of-a-mess I call my hair. I groaned in response and moved my arms a tiny bit to get more comfortable.

"Up, you freak," commanded another just as familiar voice. I groaned once again and made no effort to move. I suddenly felt something moving down from the back of my neck to my spine. My whole body instinctively jumps up and my hands quickly covers my mouth before any sound could come out.

"Damn it, Lauren, what did I tell you about doing that," I yelled after letting out a shaky breath.

Sarah suppresses a chuckle, "Be thankful it was her who woke you up and not me."

I stretched and stared at my two best friends, both of which are girls. Sarah was the 'leader' of our little group, and boy does she make it a point to let us (specifically me) know it. She has straight, dark brown hair that is so long, it reaches to her thighs (the amount of times she smacked me for calling her 'Rapunzel' is not even funny), her favorite color is blue, evident with her clothes, which are usually jeans, long-sleeves and sometimes a thin hoodie, and she is so obsessed with cats, if you call her a crazy cat lady she'll take it as a compliment. She wears glasses with sky blue frames and stays indoors a lot so she's rather pale. Also (admittedly) she is the most physically strong from all of us (play an arm wrestling game with her and you'll lose any and all pride you may have had) but she's so slow and lazy, I always end up overlapping her during P.E. class. She's also really violent, always smacking/hitting me every time I made a stupid joke (what? People laugh so it can't be _that_ stupid) and has been in her fair share of fights. That's not to say she's not smart: girl uses sarcasm as much as I drink coffee and, last time I checked, she was in the top ten of our sophomore class.

Lauren, who was sitting right in the desk behind me, is the second smartest in our group, although she rarely ever acts like it. While her grades are amazing (straight-'A's everywhere), she enjoys acting like a total ditz, which is popular with many of the other students here (mainly people who are looking to get into somebody's pants but whatever). But man, when she gets serious, _she is freaking serious_**. **I won't get too in-depth about that because she doesn't like me talking about it, but I just warn you to stay away from her when she's pissed off; unless you want to hear some _very _creative ways to kill enjoys wearing loud colors and is pretty fashionable: a purple knit cap that blankets the top of her brown, curly hair with matching glasses, an orange, flower print dress that covers her left leg but shows her right (I think she personally created that), a pastel purple sash that she wraps around her waist, letting people see her hourglass body (and trust me, they let us know when they see it), and a pair of red high-heels (I don't know specifics so don't ask me exactly which kind of heels). Amongst being the best eye-candy in our group, she is also one of the shortest: a whopping five foot zero, which I think is one of the main reasons she wears heels on a daily basis, but she'll obviously deny that.

Lauren is so special, she's also the only one who actually has a _boyfriend._ Yep, that's right people you heard correctly, she actually socializes. Speaking of her boyfriend, he just came into the classroom right now. His name is Phillip and, wearing a sweater vest, dark jeans, and a pair of Converse shoes, I greet him with what I think is the most appropriate nickname ever: "What's going on, Phlipster?" He glares at me, clearly not amused, while Sarah attempts to stifle a laugh.

Lauren slaps my leg, "Not funny, Anthony!"

"Seriously, people who don't know me actually think that's my name," sighs Phillip.

"Mission accomplished." I respond. He rolls his eyes as he sits atop of Lauren's desk. I meet Sarah's eyes who holds up three fingers, "Three," she begins, "two…one."

"I missed you, baby," Phil coos and they begin their face-eating session. I convey my thoughts to Sarah by making a disgusted face and pretending to throw up. She gives an amused smile and turns her attention to her phone.

I sit on top of my own desk and stretch, letting out a loud yawn. I stare at the classroom clock, 12:56…one more class after this and we're finished with this cruddy year of high school. I take a glance at the lovers and, after confirming that they were still being a picture-perfect couple, call out to Sarah,

"Hey, maybe we should start making out like a couple."

"Hey, maybe we should re-enact Romans back then; I can be a warrior and you can be a dead person," She replies, not bothering to look up from her phone.

"God, aren't you the romantic one."

"Well, gee, isn't that a surprise? The possibly only asexual in this school isn't into romance."

I scratch the back of my head. "Sarah, you're literally sarcasm, personified."

She shoots me a wink and sticks out her tongue in response, "Why thank you! That's the best compliment I've ever gotten in my life." During the course of this conversation, make-out twins' noise was getting louder and louder until I couldn't take it anymore. I take a deep breath before I end up screaming and turn to them.

"Hey, Phlipster, did you just come here to digest Lauren for the last 10 minutes or did you actually come here for a reason?" I say.

He sighs in response and starts fishing through his backpack, "I'm not sure if I should call you smart or just selfish," he pulls out a thin, rectangular box covered in birthday wrapping, "Here, Lauren said you wanted to try out a new game." I give a prideful grin and put the gift in my dark green messenger bag.

"Happy Birthday, _Ant_," he said, clearly trying to get me with that nickname, "How old are you turning?"

"Eighty-seven. And dude, we all know that name isn't going to stick because, well, have you actually stood next to me?" I was the tallest in the group: six-foot-four.

"Anthony, quit being stupid, you're fifteen today. And yes, we all know how tall you are." Lauren chided.

Phil shook his head in amazement, "Incredible; the tallest boy in the school happens to be one of the youngest, and he acts even younger, too."

"Hey, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked. He gave a mischievous smirk and the bell rings, allowing him a scapegoat. He kisses Lauren in the cheek, hugs Sarah, and runs out of the room before I could come up with a snarky remark.

"Happy Birthday, loser!" He shouts.

"Have a nice day, asshole!" I answered. Bad timing: the teacher just walked in at that moment. She glared at me; I just made the final class of the day just that much harder for me.

"Smooth, Anthony," Lauren quipped.

"Blame him!" I snapped. I sat back down on my desk. Beside me, Sarah nodded and put her phone away.

"Hey, after school, you want to go somewhere?" she asked me.

"Oh my, are you asking me out on a date?" she glared at me and opened her mouth to say something in return but I quickly cut her off, "Just joking, calm down. Uh, sure, but let me go home first so I can look presentable." I patted my curly black hair. I always try to brush it down in the mornings but, usually after the first class, it always manages to stick up. "What did you have in mind?"

She pulled a silver debit card that was so shiny, if I tried staring at it directly, I'm sure I would've gone blind. She shrugged and flipped the piece of square plastic through her fingers, "I don't know, your birthday, foo', you choose."

"Well, I just got to check with our chauffeur to see if she's fine with taking us anywhere." I answer, shooting her a wink.

She glared at me, "I'm NOT your chauffeur." Sarah is the only one of us who has a car and driver's license. She claims that her family's not rich, but with the amount of new things she always talks about having, I seriously think otherwise. I turn until I can see Lauren, who was braiding her own hair.

"Any suggestions?"

"Hmm…" She presses both her index fingers unto the side of her temples. She acts so cute sometimes it's ridiculous. "Let's go to an amusement park!"

I turned to look at Sarah. She stares, expressionless, then gives a small smile and nods. I let out a small fist pump and Lauren cheers.

"But like I said, let me-" I began.

"Go to your house, yes, I have ears thank you." Sarah interrupted.

"You know, you're too much of a smart-ass for your own good." I felt pain in the back of my head. My hands immediately covers and continuously rubs that spot and I cursed really loud.

"Anthony! Stop using bad words!" scolded Lauren.

"Yes, yes, sorry _mom._"

Suddenly, something is slammed unto my desk. With a yelp, I flip my head to face the teacher, who just put the last Finals exam of the day on the table. She glares at me, the square frame black glasses making her seem more angry and threatening.

"Maybe, if you actually listened to your _friends_ you'd actually make it through life_._" She spits the word out like she's actually surprised I'm worthy enough to call the girls anything less than goddesses, "Now leave lovely Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lauren alone, as they are exempt, and focus on your work." She turns and walks back to her own desk in the front of the class.

"Hey, Miss, last time I checked, wasn't this the only class I actually had an 'A' on? Shouldn't I also be exempt?" I asked.

"Last time I checked," she responded in a cold tone, "the requirements to be exempt state that a student must have both an 'A' in the class and a maximum of three absences. You, _Mister,_ have," she fiddled with a school-assigned IPad, "_Eighteen unexcused absences_! Wow, I'm actually surprised you have an 'A' in this class. Of course, that can easily be deciphered by the fact that you most likely copied most assignments from Sarah and Lauren." I slightly shrunk into my desk as the rest of the students laugh.

"Now, unless you want me to go back and change all those grades into zeroes, I suggest you focus on this exam."

With a triumphant smirk, she opens a book and completely ignores me. I breathe a heavy sigh and glance at the others. Sarah is practically dying from laughter and mouths _I'm so sorry_ before she puts her head into her arms and continues to feebly stop the laughter. I feel a pat from Lauren and turn to see a sympathetic smile from her. That doesn't make me feel any better. I look down at the packet in shame and already the test makes me want to knock out. I move the paper slightly to the side and flop my head down on the desk.

"I'm so glad this is the last day of school," I mutter quietly and close my eyes, taking an unintended nap.

**Hey! Long time, no see. I made the decision to re-write the whole story since I had no idea what direction I taking with the old version (the cause of many writer blocks) and since I feel that I can write **_**much better than before**_**, I think this could be better. So those of you who sent me OCs, **_**please**_** send another one (or the same one) through PM or some other form that doesn't let other readers see it as it may contain possible spoilers and due to some special requirements I'll ask. As you can see, I changed some of the characters dramatically, so if you can, send some unique OCs (coughs uncomfortably at Lucifer Anarchy). And since I'm re-doing the story, it also means any of you who hasn't sent one before can do so now! (I'm planning a lot of characters, so don't be shy!) That's all from me~ Merry Early Christmas!**

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Day Before: Beginning of the End**

**Chapter 2**

_**Initializing analysis.**_

_**Subject: Sarah E.**_

_**Age: 17**_

_**Handle: Shearah**_

_**General Overlook: A take-charge young woman who, growing up with 3 older brothers, is very strong and independent. While sarcastic in nature, she is very caring and loyal. Even now, she awaits the return of someone who most likely will not return to her.**_

Sarah's POV

I breathe another sigh and check my phone; 4:59 P.M., already over a full hour. Geez, the dude can go faster than the speed of light when it comes to food yet he's taking his sweet time now? I shade my eyes from the now setting sun as I take another look in the direction that Anthony would most likely come. Everything was painted a shade of orange and shadows were becoming increasingly tall. Lauren and I were waiting for the giant freak in the parking lot of the high school. The instant the bell rang, Anthony whizzed out of the classroom with barely a goodbye.

"Meet me at your car!" He yelled, almost knocking into a group of laughing freshmen.

Lauren was pacing in front my sedan, the sunbeams giving light to her obviously worried expression. The whole walk from the class to her locker and to my car, she kept talking about the little scene between Anthony and the teacher. It bugged her so much even though we both seen him take worse from other people. She alternated between brushing her hair with her fingers, biting her thumbnail, and texting on her phone (most likely bothering Phil), all while continuously walking back and forth the width of my car.

"You should calm down, sweets, you're going to ruin your pretty features if you keep doing that." I coolly state.

She looks at me innocently, "Which are my pretty features?"

"Everything."

She giggles, always loving a compliment no matter who it may be from. Her warming smile is soon replaced with a worried expression, "But, didn't you see Anthony! After what the teacher said, I tried to pat him in back at tell him to ignore her, but he just looked so depressed! And you know how bad he can get…" I stare at her gravely. It wouldn't be the first time if he tried anything drastic, and I doubt the last time was his final attempt as well. I probably didn't help at all with my laughter. Lauren must've thought the same thing because she soon looked at me pointedly.

"It wasn't a good thing to be part of the laughing group."

"Hey, I wasn't laughing at him!" Lauren crossed her arms, clearly not believing me. "I was laughing because of how _wrong_ the Miss was!" I know it doesn't sound true, but it was fact! Ms. Bleu (the teacher who shut Anthony down) has never actually seen the guy's good traits: Every time there was project and he was put in a different group, he was always the one doing the planning and motivating the other students to do their part of the work, and, whenever they didn't, would do overtime just to make sure _they_ weren't the ones getting a failing grade. The freak does volunteer work because he knows that it's useful when it comes to employment (and yes, he has already been employed before and is planning to again for the summer so he can get money to pay to go to trips, just us four). There is so many other thing that I'm not even going to bother to list, but bottom line is, the giant is always seen as the slacker of our group even though he does the most work; he just has bad memory (which is the only actual thing school needs…oh come on, you know it's true!).

Lauren's body softens a bit as I end up saying these thoughts out loud. "Besides," I added, "Anthony didn't look very depressed when he left. Heck, the guy looked more rested if anything." She nodded in agreement.

"Hey! Medusa!" Shouted a voice. I turned to see a long figure standing in the distance.

"I'm so happy for silhouettes!" I yelled back.

"Why?"

"Because I can't see your hideous face!" Even without looking, I could tell he was glaring at me.

Anthony walked to us with his hands in his pockets. He changed his clothes and his black hair was now brushed down, but naturally curled up at the end. When he got to visionary range, I could see that he was wearing his favorite long-sleeved, soft-blue-and-white striped shirt, with his left arm sleeve rolled up and the other rolled down (he thinks it looks cool). He was also wearing long, baggy black jeans with a belt and some matching black Vans.

"Sorry if I'm slightly late," he yawned.

"_Slightly?_" I echoed, irritated.

He moved over to Lauren, gave her a hug, and leaned on the back door of my car, hands still in his pockets, "Look, woman," he said, "I'll explain while we're on the road to make time go by faster, can we get going?" I continued to glare at him but, with my arms folded, I clicked on the car keys and car lighted up. He opened the door and got in, stretching out his legs over the whole back seat. Lauren and I exchanged a look, me sighing and her giggling. He's back to his usual self alright.

Translating Anthony's story to something understandable (and taking off every bad word he added; Lauren will smack him later), some slightly unexpected things happen while at his house and on his way over here. First off, after he finished taking a shower and getting ready, he found a brown package in his room. His mom told him it was from some cousin that was coming over and would probably be here when Anthony returned from our outing. He was not looking forward to it since he didn't really get along well with his relatives except for his parents and sisters. Speaking of, he was also delayed due to his relatives singing to him and arguing with him to at least take the presents they gave him and to take lots of pictures, say 'Hi' to Lauren and I for them, etc.

After managing to finally escape from his house, he began running with his messenger bag (which was heavy with presents, he pointed out). He said that that was a mistake since, later, he ended up running straight into another guy.

"Was he cute?" Lauren had asked. We both stared at her incredulously for a while.

"Why are you asking!?" Anthony shouted, "You have a boyfriend."

She shrugged and begged for details.

"Woman," Anthony chided, "you're asking the guy with horrible memory. Besides, the dude was in a hurry."

He explained that when he bumped into him, everything in the random guy's bag fell out, so he was spending more time picking up things than actually looking at him.

"He was kind of tall, though. And…" Anthony pinched the bridge of his nose, his main quirk whenever he's seriously thinking, "he had kind of long, black hair. Yeah, not your type."

"What? How do you know he's not _my _type?" She objected.

"Because he wasn't awkward looking or anything; he looked really serious, basically because he was _my _type! Besides," Anthony added dreamily, "Our hands touched when we reached his laptop at the same time."

I groaned at that, "Jesus, dude, you'd hit on anybody who'd even _looked_ at you." Anthony laughed at my response. The dude's a bisexual (probably because he can't get any…don't tell him I said that) and god does he _love _to show it.

"Although it was kind of weird," Anthony continued, "Because when it did happen, he looked more shocked at the fact that I even tried grabbing his computer rather than the fact that there was a possible bond between us." Lauren and I glanced at each other and rolled our eyes simultaneously. "And when he got everything back in his bag, he didn't even say a thank you! He just continued to run, mumbling…something about needing to find a terminal? I don't know, it was weird." As he finished saying that, I turned into the parking lot of our agreed amusement park.

"We're here." I announced.

The parking lot was on a hill that over looked the whole amusement park. There was still enough sun to make it so the park wouldn't have to turn out its lights, but it was still rather nice to look at. At the front was a medium-sized building that housed the ride tickets/bracelets booth, mini-cafeteria, arcades, and the famous laser-tag, and behind the building was a huge bit of land that formed a ring around an empty center, with the tour train forming a border (the center of the ring was more space for more attractions in the future). Going clockwise, the thematic roller coaster was all the way in the back, next to that on its right was the _Drop Zone_ (not scary at all), that spinning top ride, and an area for the younger ones' rides.

Skipping the front building, there was the _Tsunami_ ride on our left (it was already getting late for water, but with Lauren and Anthony, I doubt they'd care), a small building that held the bumper cars (fun, fun), next to that a go-kart track, with a kiddie version next to it, and a bunch of swing-style rides after that. Above it all, circling the park, were several wires suspended by poles. On the wires were these seats that people can sit in while it moved forwards. Incidentally, the booth to get into ride was right next o the roller coaster, and it tends to be where people end the day since it's so calm and smooth. With the sun bouncing off all the polished steel, the whole park seemed to glitter. I took a glance at my two best friends and could already see the excitement in their faces.

I chuckled to myself as we began walking towards the entrance. When we almost made it to the glass double-doors, I noticed a short-haired, blonde dude leaning on a white wall next to the doors, tapping away furiously on his tablet.

"Philly Cheese Steak!" I called out. Phil looked up from his touch screen and let out a small smile and a wave, putting his electronic device away in a brown, leather satchel bag.

"Phillip, you came!" shouted Lauren, who ran to him and tackle-hugged him (how she can run with heels is beyond me).

"What's up, Phlipster? Lauren, bugged you enough to come?" said Anthony, giving him a bro-shake and giving him a huge grin.

"She did not _bug_ me," Phil stated, "and would you quit calling me that? I do not look like any damn hipster!"

"Sure you do," I commented, "just need those generic black glasses and you're perfect!" I returned his glare with a smirk as Anthony practically died of laughter behind me.

"Hey!"called a voice off to the side. We all turned to the source to find a gaggle of girls in kind of showy clothes who were standing by another set of double doors about 10 feet away from us. One of them, a kind of generic-looking blonde, white-skinned girl was calling out to us as her posy gave us amused looks. "I like what you're showing there, boy!"

Lauren got in front of Phil and growled like an animal, "Back off, find someone else to pounce on!" I took a look at Phil and became confused. He was wearing the same clothes as he were at school (Poor dude lives in the east side of town, so he probably didn't even go home yet), so if anything, he was actually rather covered up for it being summer.

"Ew, gross, I'm not talking about the hipster," the girl scoffed. Anthony had to hold his mouth to stop the drool (whenever he laughs for too long, he leaves his mouth opens and since he salivates a lot…actually pretend I didn't tell you this). The girl points a nailed finger at Anthony. We all turn to face him and I realize that, since he lengthened one of the sleeves, he had to pull down that side. And sadly enough, the side he pulled down showed off basically his whole left shoulder. I quickly turned around, feeling gross for even looking.

"Come talk with me sometime and maybe I'll show you a little more," he flirted. The girls all giggled and, sending 'call-me' signs and winks, went into the building. So freaking gross.

"You shameless flirt," Phil commented.

"Hey, unlike you, I don't have someone to just mack the crap out of! I'm a hormonal teenager, sir, and as the _geniuses _of my society say," He throws open the doors and, with his back at us, yells, "YOLO Swag!" He walks into the building, laughing at his own irony. The rest of us just stand there in incredulous silence. We all glance at each other and give a collective sigh.

"One of these days, the idiot is going to get beat up." I say. With nods of agreement, we all followed him into the building.

Saying the day was 'fun' would not cut it. I did not stop enjoying myself one bit, and even though we've all been to these rides before, the antics we all came up with was just purely hilarious. It was about 8:30 P.M. when we all agreed to take a break and go back to the front of the building to eat. Anthony decided it was a good time to open his presents when Phillip served the pizza and passed around the plates and other stuff. I gave him the keys to my car and he ran out and back in in less than 2 minutes (the freak can run). When he laid his bag on the table, it produced a loud _thud!_

"Wow that sounded heavy. How many presents did you get?" Inquired Lauren, clearly excited.

"Pff, I don't know. I didn't count." Answered Anthony.

He opened his bag and produced several packages. He went through them all, giving generic responses like "Wow!" or "Aw yeah! Thanks!" When he ripped open Phil's wrapping, his eyes widened in surprised.

"Holy hell, this game!? Dude, how much did it cost!?"

"Man, don't worry about the price tag. Worry about how much effort you're going to put into that thing. It took at least a _week_ to finish it once," replied Phil. I guess I should mention that our blondie here is a total electronics nerd. Video games, phones, machines; you name it, the guy most likely has already tampered with it. Whenever he gets a new game, the guy will pull all-nighters to finish them (and he usually finishes game that are predicted to be finished in 5 days in 5 hours). How he finds time to keep his grades up and keep in touch with us is a thing I don't even _want_ to try and figure out.

"Quick, Lauren! Conversion!" Snaps Anthony.

"A week for him most likely means it'll take month for you." She responds in a military-like fashion.

"You two are dorks," says Phil, which Lauren and Anthony laugh at.

He pulls out the final package from his bag, and he visibly puts effort into lifting the brown container, showing that it was probably the heaviest thing in his bag.

"Is that the gift your cousin gave you?" I ask. He nods and we both inspect it as Lauren enlightens a confused looking Phillip. It was a really average-looking cardboard box, practically covered with duct tape. The shipping information sticker was still on it and, as I take a closer look…

"It's from Japan!?" Anthony shrieks. It was true: the information sticker, other than Anthony name and address, was entirely in Japanese kanji and katakana and whatever else their writing is called. Anthony tries to open the box, but his weak, bony arms can't break the tape.

He curses, "Does anybody have something I can cut this thing with." Lauren holds up a plastic knife and laughs at Anthony annoyed expression. I whistle nonchalantly while reaching into my pocket and quietly place an eight-inch pocket knife on the box.

"Sarah, why do you…!" Anthony begins to shout, but I quickly cover his mouth and shush him.

"Get us in trouble, why don't you!" I whisper. He sighs but pulls out the blade and begins cutting away at it. After handing it back to me, he holds down the box's flaps and gives us all a sly look.

"Are you all ready?" We all nod. "I am about to show what this box contains. A box from Japan could mean anything: expensive as heckie electronics, maybe some weird food, hell I wouldn't doubt it if there was even an animal inside! Are you…"

"Anthony, quit being stupid and open the damn thing already." Says Phil, clearly not amused. I nod my head in agreement with him.

"Man, you guys are no fun," Anthony sighs, "Lauren, drum roll please!" Lauren begins furiously banging our table and when Anthony says, "Ta-dah!" he dramatically throws open the flaps.

We all peer inside and gasp. Inside the brown box were four really expensive-looking items stacked upon one another. They were, in order from bottom to top: a grey laptop, a black tablet (most likely the Android kind), a dark blue Nintendo 3DS, and…what is that?

"Oh my god, is that a smart watch!?" shouts Phillip, who quickly reaches in and pulls out the unnamed item. It was a tiny screen with an attachment that I guess you put your arm in, since Phil instantly did so.

"Anthony this is amazing! It hasn't even shipped to America yet, how did…Anthony?" We all turn to look at Anthony. He was just frozen there, his jaw dropped. He slowly crawls on top of a table next to him and rolls himself in fetal position.

"I-it's…beautiful…" he mutters. We all laugh. Phil and I pull him up to his feet as Lauren closes the box and puts everything back inside his bag.

"C'mon, weirdo, still plenty of rides to enjoy." I say, as I put his arm over my shoulder and carry the stick figure out of the doors. His pupils were still wide and he moved like he was in a daze. Lauren gives the bag to the front registers to hold onto and rushes back to us, in which Phil wraps his arm around her waist. We all went out into the evening air to enjoy the now lighted-up rides.

_ I wonder…if we had actually checked out these things thoroughly at that moment, would things have been any different? Most likely…we wouldn't have even been alive._

**Wow that was much longer than I expected! And I actually had planned this part to end a bit different, but hey this works too. Since I'm on break, I'm planning to update at least a chapter a week (might be more now since I'm finished with my Winter Homework) and I intend them all to be at least over 1000 words each (more than my last writing).**

**Also, Lucifer Anarchy- Aha, my bad for pointing you out dude! Sorry but your character just sounded suspiciously like the character Nero from DMC, I love your new OC though! But also, and this is really important, is there **_**any**_** way you can privately message me? If you need some sort of means, feel free to ask. **

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Day Before: The Beginning of the End**

**Chapter 3**

_**Initializing Analysis**_

_**Subject: Lauren W.**_

_**Age: 16**_

_**Handle: lo-rain**_

_**General Overlook: A free spirited young lady who has a passion for fashion. While seemingly oblivious to everything around her, she, in actuality, studies her surroundings in great detail and is able to notice even the smallest incongruities.**_

_Too much has happened to us…I honestly wouldn't have been alive if it weren't for these people supporting and helping me. I would've run away if I were on my own, implying that I would've lived that long anyway. I know it sounds really corny but…guys, please don't ever leave me._

Lauren's POV

The sky-ride (that's what I'm calling it hush) is absolutely amazing at night. That's probably why we had to wait in line for so long. But we finally managed to get on and also managed to convince the man running the ride to let all four of us on one seat (it's only supposed to be a maximum of three but with Anthony's stick thinness and my small size, both of us combined basically adds to one person). So we were going up, me sitting on Phillip's lap, who was on the far right, Sarah on the far left, and Anthony in the middle.

Anthony stretched out his limbs and rested his head on the safety bar in front of his. He let out a dreamy sigh, "Man, this has got to be the best birthday ever."

"You mean the best birthday _so far_." I pointed out. He let out another sigh that didn't sound as happy.

"Woman, just let me enjoy the mood, yeah?" I giggled a bit and we all stared at the amusement park in comfortable silence. The lights glowed so nicely in our desert home as we inched pasted some of the rides we rode earlier. About a kilometer away, we could see (and hear) the casino that was across from this place, with spotlights dancing on its walls. Phil rested his head on my shoulder and I patted his soft hair.

"Hey, Ant, are you cool to hang out tomorrow?" he asked.

Anthony scoffed, "Dude are you kidding? And let _me_ set up all those electronics by myself? Hell yeah I'm hanging out with you guys tomorrow, you ain't got a choice!"

Sarah groaned at that, "Aw, I need to see your ugly face again? On my free time too?" She looked away as Anthony shot daggers at her. You couldn't see her expression, but it was pretty obvious she was laughing.

"Cool it, freak, of course I'll go. Where exactly?"

Anthony thought about it for a bit. "I was thinking the park but…" He took a worried glance at Phillip, "I'd be wasting so much of your gas man, I'm so sorry."

Phil reached over to him and flicked Anthony between the eyes, which produced a loud curse. "For the 30th time already, quit worrying about the money!"

A famous song quickly came into my head when he said that and before I realized it, I burst into song.

"It's not about the money, money, money…" I began. Anthony smiled and sang with me. Then Phil joined (after sighing about how a-dork-able I was) and soon, we all started singing very loudly (Sarah will never admit it, but she has a very nice singing voice). It was cliché and, in all honesty, pretty lame, but still it was very fun! When we finished, we all laughed. Apparently time went by pretty quickly because at the end of the song, the ride was coming to an end.

Anthony was hanging over the edge and looking down at the people below us when he gasped. "Oh my god, Lauren!"

"What is it?"

"Remember that guy I told you about! I think that's him down there." He unnecessarily whispered. I followed his finger until I saw a figure sitting Indian-style near the railing of the entrance of this ride. You could tell the person was on their laptop because their face was awash with light. Still, up here I couldn't make out many details except for the fact that it was a guy and his hair was pretty much the way Anthony described it.

"I can't see anything, he's too far! But I do see a guy…" I confirmed.

When we got off of the ride, Anthony immediately ran up to the mentioned person and we followed. The guy looked like everyone else in this city; nothing really special in all honesty (Anthony was right, _not _my type). The guy was wearing a drab, gray V-neck shirt, some jeans and dark shoes that blended in with the black concrete. There was also something around his neck that I couldn't make out since it was dark. The guy is so absorbed in his computer; he doesn't bother to look up at all, not even when Anthony very obviously bends over him. Something about him seemed off however, though I couldn't tell what exactly it was.

"Hey there, we meet again! This is the second time we see each other, so…" Anthony begins to speak more when he realizes that it's useless; the guy hasn't regarded his presence even once and still taps away on the keyboard. Anthony leans in even more, attempting to peek at the screen. It's at that point that the man inches his head up. His bored eyes widen and he abruptly shuts his laptop. He gets up quickly, carefully placing his laptop in a backpack nearby him and eyes Anthony warily.

"You…you're the guy who almost grabbed my laptop earlier." The man says. He notices the rest of us staring and regards us with just as much hostility as he did with Anthony. He tries to cover one of his eyes with his hair but it wasn't long enough so it just sprung back up above his eyebrows. I stared harder at that eye, but he quickly turns his head so that I could only see one side of his face. Something bugged me about him but this guy was clearly not going to give me the chance to figure out what exactly it was.

"Oh hey, you do have a voice!" commented Phillip. I begin to chuckle but stop when he gives us a threatening glare. He does not seem friendly at all.

"You know, you could of at least said a simple 'thanks' when I helped you earlier." Anthony chides. The boy glances at him and then looks down in the direction of the building, like it was much more interesting than all of us.

"…Sure, thanks I guess." He pauses for a bit and looks down, as if in thought. He then looks at Anthony, more serious than before (if that were even possible). "Hey…this may seem like a strange question but…you didn't happen to obtain a package containing some kind of electronic thing with internet capabilities, did you?"

Anthony gets taken aback, "That's…" He looks at us for help but we all just shrug, "Surprisingly accurate, wow um…yeah I did, how did you…?" Suddenly, with surprising speed, the boy grabs Anthony by the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer to himself. His eyes were filled with such intensity, it looked as if he could've burned holes on the railing if he tried. "Where is it!?"

"Whoa, whoa, dude, back up!" cried Sarah, now in a sort of defense mode.

"Hey, it's O.K, She-rah, no need to get worked up, I'm fine." He assures her, using the middle school nickname she hated. He winks at me and mouths 'Watch this'. He gently takes a hold of the other guy's hands, whose deathly serious expression becomes mixed with confusion, and shoots him a devilish grin.

"You know, if you felt that way about me, you could've just said something." Anthony purrs in the most seductive voice he could muster (which wasn't much). Phil stifles a laugh and quickly turns the other way as to not be seen.

"I—what!?" The guy was clearly flustered and not used to people doing this. The rest of us were now laughing and giggling. Anthony strikes again.

"There's no need to be violent," Anthony continued, "I felt the spark at that moment when our hands touched. I don't even care if your eye is weird, I…" He was about to say more, but the moment he said the part about the eye, the other guy flinched and shoved Anthony so hard, he ended falling back, landing flat on his bottom. He hit his head on the opposite railing and drops an F-bomb. His eye?

The strange guy looks at us with a horrified face and stared long enough for us to see what Anthony was talking about. It was hard to tell at first, since it was nighttime, but when I examined him enough I could see what he meant. His eye color was dark, so I still couldn't tell exactly what color it was, but the peculiar thing about his eyes were the fact that his left was just a blank, white space. I ended up gasping when I saw it, which was a bad idea since he turned his entire body the opposite direction while whispering a quiet curse.

"If this were just another random summoning in the middle of nowhere, I would've just let you be another crime scene." He muttered. The guy sighs and pulls Anthony up by his collar, who was still furiously rubbing the back of his head.

"Listen to me." He snarled, "Go grab the package and meet me…" He looks around and stared at the center of the park, the part where there was nothing but a large, dry patch of land. He nods his head in that direction. "Meet me over there; it's kind of hidden from the general public so it won't hopefully get too much attention. And it'd be best if you came…" He glanced at us and gave us a look that suggested we were the equivalent of rats who managed to get into the house, "…alone, understood?"

"Wait, hold on, you can't seriously expect me to go with you after you attacked me, I don't even know your name!" Anthony protested. His expression hardened as he pushed aside the guy's hand on his collar. "And wherever I go, they go." He responded firmly, straightening out his shirt.

The guy glared at him and held it for several beats. For a moment, I really thought something was going to happen, but he just sighed in annoyance. "Whatever… you can call me Kisuke; just do as I ask, O.K?" Did I just hear some pleading in his voice? With that, he turns, grabs his bag and makes his way to the center of the park, gripping it more protectively and with more intensity than before.

We all looked at each other in uncertainty. I asked the question that was most likely on everyone's mind, "Should we actually do as he says?"

"Obviously not!" Sarah shouts, "Didn't you see what just happened? If we weren't here, and if we hadn't been with this many people around, he probably would've killed us! Well, at least try to."

"Kisuke?" Anthony says absent-mindedly, "Isn't that name, like, Japanese or something?" Sarah smacks him on the back of his head.

"That's not important at all!" she yells, "Freak, don't tell me you're actually going to do what he says."

He looks down in thought and there's a moment of silence. He pulls out his phone from his jean pocket and examines it. "Hey, what time does this place close?" Sarah lets out a small scream of frustration and covers her face with both hands while turning in the other direction.

"10:30 P.M." Phil answers.

"Sweet." Anthony puts the phone back and looks at Sarah with a bit of concern. He walks up to her, putting his elbow on her shoulder and leaning on her. "O.K, yeah, admittedly this is probably a bad idea, but I mean c'mon! The guy knew about the package and was saying some pretty weird stuff." Sarah lowers her hands and sighs.

"Yeah…something about a murder scene?" She admits unhappily, shrugging him off. Anthony grins and beckons us to follow as he makes his way to the entrance to retrieve the items of importance.

Phillip was the one carrying the box since Anthony already had enough trouble with his bag (weakling). We circled the route of the amusement park to wait out the crowd, as it would look suspicious if a group of four teenagers walked into somewhere they shouldn't be. Anthony was leading, gazing at random things and most likely daydreaming, with Sarah walking slightly behind him, her arms crossed. It was pretty awkward since Sarah was still a little angered for being dragged into…whatever this was, so for the most part, the only ones talking were me and Phil, who were taking up the rear, practically shoulder to shoulder.

"So Ant said something about knowing this guy before?" He inquires.

"Oh, well not personally or anything. He just bumped into him on his way to Sarah's car." I explained.

"Right…So then how do you think he knew about this thing?" He shakes the box a little.

"Honestly, I have no clue, unless Anthony mentioned it to him, but I kind of doubt it. I'm actually up for the whole 'meet the creep' idea since I also want to know what else that guy was talking about. A crime scene? Have you heard anything about random crime scenes?" He rubs his chin with his free hand and looks at the floor in thought.

"Well…" Phil began, "Around the Internet I have seen some stuff about weird deaths lately. The only reason they're called weird is mainly due to the fact that the victim's bodies aren't found at all. Heck, the only reason these are even considered deaths is because the people have gone missing for so long, and those are only the ones who get called in to the police. The consistent thing about these disappearances is the fact that it only happens to be in rural or deserted areas, so who knows; there might be a lot more people missing, we just haven't noticed. Although, I kind of doubt this would be the same thing, since, again, it usually happens in rural areas. If it were to happen here, there would be a whole lot of publicity."

I shiver a bit as my brain comes up with crazy ways in which the state of the bodies would be found. I quickly shake my head of the thoughts and we continue in just as awkward a silence as Anthony and Sarah.

After a while, we duck under a large billboard from the Children's Area side of the park and make our way to the center of the ring. Since there was next to no lights strong enough to shine upon this area, it was kind of hard to see much, but there was really no point as there was nothing to look at in first place. The place was rather big but not so much so; probably about half the size of a football stadium. While at the middle of the park, it was pretty well hidden at night time with no light, making it hard for even the sky-riders to be able to see anything. The fact that various billboards twice the height of Anthony and concession buildings formed a sort of circular fort helped to make it so people couldn't see in here. The whole place was flat, desolate, and covered in dirt, with very few patches of grass and weeds spurting through here and there. In the center of it all was Kisuke sitting Indian-style on top of his bag, his laptop screen on his lap and illuminating his face.

"Oh my god, is he actually smiling?" I whisper to Phil.

"So he _does_ have emotions other than anger," He chuckles. As we got closer, I noticed he had headphones plugged into the computer and was talking to someone in a joyful manner. From this distance I could only hear bits and pieces of whatever conversation he was having.

"Yeah I'm sure….well, its fits…I doubt I'll need your guys'…"

"Hey there, Kisuke!" Anthony shouted. He looks up from his screen and sighs as takes off his headphones.

"I got to go, they're here." He tells his laptop, and clicks something on the mouse-pad.

"Oh, do you have a Skype? Want my username? I'm usually on there when I'm not busy with something." Anthony asked.

"I wasn't on Skype," Kisuke says, rolling his eyes, "And if I was, I wouldn't add you, that's for sure." Sarah's frown wavers a bit before she goes back to 'I'm-mad-at-you' mode. He gets up, carefully placing his laptop on his bag, and looks at us with a frown.

"Oh…I see you actually went through with bringing them all here." His tone when he said that was pretty the same as him saying, 'I see you brought useless insects with you'. I must've looked angry because Phil gripped my hand and gave a reassuring squeeze. Well, if I was going to kill the guy, at least I wouldn't be alone!

"Oh, trust me," Anthony continued, being oblivious as always, "It took a bit of…persuading. More like bribery." You could hear a faint growl coming from Sarah.

"Like what?"

"Well…" Anthony put both his hand behind his head and faced the direction opposite of Sarah. "Some pizza, at a later date." Sarah eyebrow raised a bit, "Maybe bring some videogames, and give away some cash…" He continued speaking of material wealth until Sarah couldn't resist anymore.

"Heck yeah! Alright, pirate, let's do…whatever we're going to do." She said in a happy tone. He shot her a look that clearly conveyed his emotions about that nickname but ended up ignoring it and stared at the box.

"I'm assuming that's the package?" He asked, pointing at the cardboard in Phillip's arm. He handed it over and when he held it, he gave a slightly confused yelp at the weight. He swears as he places the box in front of the laptop light.

"Don't tell me…!" When he opened the flaps and looked inside, he let out a long groan.

"Damn it! I'm responsible for all four of you now?" He shouted at no one in particular.

"Well, there was a reason I brought these guys." Anthony pointed out. Kisuke groaned again and passed out the electronics: Phillip got the smart-watch, Sarah the tablet, me the laptop, and Anthony the 3DS.

"I hope the idiot put some videogames in there; what would be the point of this thing if I didn't have any to play in it? Hey, check the box, is there anything left?" Anthony called out.

Kisuke looks back in the box, shakes it a little, and pulls out a piece of paper. He crouches in front of his laptop to see better and scanned the paper. When he got to the end of it, his eyes widened and he held a triumphant grin.

"Yes! B.G.! Finally some damn progress!" He exclaims, waving the paper around.

The rest of us give each other quizzical looks and I decide to shoot the million dollar question: "What's going on?"

He looks at us like we just caught him singing and coughs uncomfortably. "Uh, nothing…I guess you don't know who B.G. is um…here just read this." He shoves the paper in Sarah's hand and, brushing a hand through his hair, goes to his laptop and types at the speed of light again. Sarah straightens the paper and squints.

"Hey, can I get a light over here?" She yells to Kisuke. However, he pays no attention so I just pull out a phone from Phillip's back-pocket and shine it upon the paper. We all huddle behind Sarah and silently read it to ourselves.

_Dear Anthony,_

_ I hope you read this letter before you decide to turn on the gifts I got you, as it might help clear up some likely misunderstandings. Although, I believe it best that you should learn to help yourself, I will give you this very important warning: __do not _ever_ break or lose these valuable pieces of equipment_. _It will very well be the one thing that will keep you alive in the events to come. I originally planned to send you only one computer, but I did not know which you would feel most comfortable with so I sent multiple. Give it to those who you wish to survive alongside you or hold them all for yourself for back-up; it's entirely up to you. Since it is your birthday, it is all free-of-charge, but of course, life does not work that, especially the life you are soon to live in. Do not run away and please, do try to live until I can speak with you personally. Hope you enjoy your birthday, it may be the last joy you'll have for a while._

_Sincerely, your cousin, more commonly referred as B.G._

We all stared in stunned silence. Anthony's mouth was agape, Phil looking in disbelief and Sarah having a look that was mixture of anger and confusion. I was just shaken and confused.

I was about to say something but I was cut off by a very excited Phil. "Your cousin is B.G.? As in _the _B.G.?"

"What's a B.G.? Why are we talking about backgrounds? I don't know if my cousin is a background. How would that even work? Guys, I'm confused and that message was not normal, _guys._" Anthony sped talked all of that; something he does whenever he's nervous. After taking a few seconds to calm him down, Phil began explaining.

"O.K, so basically, B.G. is the handle, username in normal terms, of practically the smartest man alive. He's a pretty well-renowned programmer and computer technician who lives in Japan, which would explain the Japanese text on the box if he really is your cousin. Anyways, he's made several hundred computer games that are always a hit and, through some leaked information that has been proven correct, worked on huge games like Skyrim and refused credit for it. Which is weird, but when you have lots of other things going for you, and considering his kind of aloof personality, it kind of makes sense. He hasn't been posting anything on his blog for a while though…"

Sarah laughs at that. "He has a blog? What, does he make depressive posts and takes pictures of Starbucks or something?"

"Don't apply your common knowledge to people far more advanced than you." Kisuke cuts in, walking with his laptop and a couple of wires in his arms. Sarah shot him a look, but he calmly ignored her and asked us all to turn on our devices.

"Oh, are you also one of his followers? What's your handle?" Asked Phillip. We all decided to sit down, since standing up for several minutes started getting tiring. I rested my head on Phil's shoulder, with Anthony lying down in full length next to me and Sarah sitting cross-legged across from me, forming a sort of circle.

Kisuke hesitated before answering, like that was supposed to be private information. "…it's spelled X-H-A-K-R, all capital letters. And of course I'm one of his followers; it's the only reason I actually came here in..." He abruptly stopped talking, like he was making a mistake and grabbed Anthony 3DS which was by his shoes. By the steady movement of his stomach, I could tell he was taking this opportunity to nap. Kisuke looked through the screen a bit and nodded.

"Hey, uh…what's that guy's name?" He said, pointing at Anthony.

"Ant." Sarah and Phillip said in unison. I decided against correcting then; maybe now the nickname will stick. He must have heard the name, because Anthony ended up snorting in a kind of gross way, which made Sarah retch and Phil and I laugh, and erected himself up with his elbow.

"What's going on?" He yawned, "You guys talking smack?" Kisuke practically shoved the gaming system in his face.

"Here, stupid, it seems you already have the program installed. Can the rest of you check your computers to see if you also have it? The file name or app should be named 'DSP'."

Since I was computer-stupid, Phillip looked through my files for me after confirming that he himself had the thing in his smart-watch (I can't get over how adorably small it was).

"What does 'DSP' stand for?" asked Anthony, pressing on the bottom screen with the stylus.

"That's not important, focus on what's going on in your screen." He answered. Ant huffed at that response.

I looked at the laptop and double-clicked the black square icon that had the name underneath it. After a few seconds of staring at a generic background, the whole screen became black with a hint of dark red. For a while, nothing happened, and I was about to speak up when a blinking white underscore appeared in the upper-center part of the screen. It quickly types out 'Identify Thyself' in white 8-bit letters and moved underneath these words to type out 'First Name and Last Initial'. There was a moments silence as the underscore blinked in a still position.

"Uh…Do we…type something?" I asked Kisuke. He looked at me, smirked, and pointed at my laptop. I gave him a confused look and stared at the screen again. I noticed that on the screen, adjacent to the words, were the letters 'Uh D.' and below that was the question, 'Is this correct?' I frowned and said 'No' out loud. Both the question and the random assortment of letters were instantly erased and again appeared the blinking underscore. I looked at the others, who were all looking at me, and we came to a mutual understanding. We did as was asked and after confirming the option, the underscore moved itself to the lower-center part of the screen. The words 'Handle:' were written and next to it was, "Please type out to complete the process." Phillip gave a small yelp of surprise and I turned my head to see that a green, holographic projection of a keyboard was displayed in front of him.

"Dude, this is so cool," was the only thing he could say. His fingers blazed over the electronic keys, typing something I'm assuming, and was about to press enter when Sarah shouted not to.

She looked at Kisuke with distrusting eyes. "What's going to happen, huh? You've been smiling this whole damn time and what, you just expect us to listen to everything you say?" I looked up and noticed he _had_ been smiling, although it was more of a wicked grin if anything.

"Oh?" He responded with fake sweetness, "You've been doing everything up until now, why the hesitation?" There was moment's silence, with tension rising, until Anthony came in.

"Wait, we can put anything on our Handle? Like dic-" I quickly covered his mouth. Kisuke stared at him with a horrified expression.

"Yes but…what is wrong with you?" Kisuke said whilst covering his face. Anthony smiled and tapped on his screen several times. I looked to make sure he wasn't putting anything stupid.

"G-Angelo…?" I blankly stared at the words, trying to figure out its meaning. It dawns on me after a few seconds and I pull an annoyed face to Ant's stupid grin.

"You freaking nerd!" I shout as I smack him on his leg, in which he just laughs. I huff and return to my own screen, thinking up a Handle that fits. After a couple of minutes of drawing up blanks, I shrug to myself and just put down 'lo-rain'. As I hit enter, the rest of the white text disappears and is replaced with words, in a kind of light gray, reading: "Waiting for 2 users".

"Hold on…is this…connected to your guy's things?" I ask. They all give me confused looks except for Anthony, who nods. "Yeah, it's saying its waiting for 2 others now." Kisuke gets a troubled expression and asks to see his 3DS. He studies the screen in deep thought and points at Sarah without looking up.

"Type out your Handle."

"What? I don't want to." Sarah says.

"Do it!" He commands. After a bit of grumbling, she taps on her tablet with her fingers. I look again at my laptop and notice that the number changed from 2 to 1. Kisuke is clearly confused and begins rapidly talking to himself in a very low tone, practically a chant. After a disturbing while, he sighs in resignation and hands over the 3DS. "I'll figure out why it's doing that later. It didn't happen to me when I when finished applying the information. If my guess is anywhere near correct, this might mean you're all stuck together."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." I quipped, and gave a warm smile to the others, who returned it. Kisuke pretends to puke and goes back to his own laptop.

"Phillip, I believe your name is, you're the last one. Hurry and come up with a Handle I.D!" He barked.

Phil rubbed his chin and looked at me. "Any suggestions?"

"Philly Cheese Steak!" I exclaim. I sighs and shakes his head.

"P.H.D it is." I pout in annoyance. He chuckles and messes up my hair (which angers me) and hits the enter thing on the hologram. Anthony snaps his fingers and remarks on how clever that actually is. "Better than 'Phlipster'!" He yells. I focus on my screen as stuff begins to happen.

'Now Loading…' slowly blinks on the center of my screen. After a few uncomfortably silent minutes, the letters fall to the bottom while flashing a bunch of numbers and letters (codes I guess). The reddish-tinge on the screen gets dimmer until it is fully black, and for a while nothing happen. I'm about to bang on the computer, thinking it broke or something, when green text pops up on the screen so suddenly, I sort of gasped in fright. The green stuff was scrolling up the screen too fast, so I couldn't read any of it, but it would soon be apparent that I wouldn't need to, since just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Nothing happens. I hear some creepy snickering from Kisuke, which doesn't help the mood.

"Why are you being a creep?" asks Sarah.

"Oh, no reason. Just that things are finally going to start getting interesting." He cynically answers.

On the screen appears the white, blinking underscore again, and slowly types out several phrases that disappear after they're shown.

"_Mundane days are over."_

"_The clock of destiny is now ticking."_

"_Can you survive?"_

A brilliant flash of blinding light is emanated from my screen (and after sitting in the darkness for so long; just becomes that much worse) and for a while I see nothing. After my eyes adjust enough for me to see some things, I look around to see if everyone else is alright. Wait…something's not right. I blink several times and furiously scratch at my eyes, but the figures are still there. The others seem to have noticed to, because they quickly jump up from their spots as one of the unknown things produce a low, threatening growl.

I hear Kisuke's voice, which sounds to be filled with glee. "I hope you can kill them before they kill you!"

**This ended up becoming **_**a lot**_** longer than I intended it to be. With school back in full force updates are going to be slower (which is bad considering I just started…or restarted). Thank you for all those who submitted OCs! I now have all the major characters needed. You can still send some OCs, but keep in mind that they'll only appear as minor characters instead.**

** C6H12O6: I am very happy to hear that! Would you please explain what exactly it is that still needs work, so that I may fix it up early? An example would be very helpful!**

** Hades Revolution: Thank you very much! I was actually in need of another female OC so thanks. Welcome to FF, be careful of the smut around here, and if you're looking for it on purpose, well hope you find a well-written one. (****Jefuh-fuh…Duckham…? Nope, never heard of him).**

_**Reviews are appreciated! **_


	4. Chapter 4

**Day Before: Beginning of the End**

**Chapter 4**

_**Initializing Analysis**_

_**Subject: Phillip D.**_

_**Age: 16**_

_**Handle: P.H.D**_

_**General Overlook: A very intellectual young man who, growing up with technology, is very skilled in the field. Having a history in which he constantly moved around, he is content with the stability of his current living conditions, as well as his relationships with those he speaks with and does not mind being picked on by his friends.**_

_**Four analyses complete.**_

?'s POV

I breathe a sigh a relief and close the laptop. Thankfully, I managed to complete the process before I landed at my destination. Resting my elbow on the arm-rest and placing my cheek on my palm, I gaze out of the plane's window. The iconic Mountain Star was in view, which allowed me to guess that we were to be landing soon. I'm not sure if it was luck or stupidity that he decided not to activate my _gifts_ yet, but hey; makes my job easier.

My earpiece crackles to life as _her_ voice speaks. "You're playing a very dangerous game." She says in a low tone.

I softly chuckle, "I firmly believe I know what I'm doing. I don't require your advice on the matter. Besides, it's a little too late to persuade me to do anything at this point; I just finished up actually." I hear a loud _bang_ on the other end of the line. She was always bad at keeping her temper when it came to this matter.

"You're going to leave the world in a sorry state!" She yells, and the line cuts off. I try stifling a laugh with my hand covering my mouth, I didn't want to wake any of the other passengers. Although that effort was soon turned futile with the intercom above.

"Good evening, valued passengers," says a woman's voice, "We are to be landing in El Paso very soon. We ask that you turn off all electronic equipment and prepare. We thank you for choosing our flight. I repeat…"

I again look out the window. The large difference in the number of city lights between here and Tokyo is almost startling. This place seems rather boring compared to where I was coming from.

"Isn't great that things are about to become different soon for you, _cousin_?"

"Excuse me, sir," intrudes a kind voice. I turn my head to see one of the flight attendants looming over me. "I apologize, but I hope you had heard the announcement; cell phones _are _consideredtechnology." I shudder a bit and laugh nervously, "Uh, yeah! I-uh-will turn off my cellular device!" I make a show of pressing various buttons on my earpiece. She nods sweetly, but her eyes were pretty clear that I just made it awkward. She walks away, slightly confused.

Well I couldn't have very well told her that I was talking to myself, could I?

Phillip's POV

My eyes were finally adjusting to the lack of lighting and I could almost clearly see the uninvited guests. In front of each of us was a different _thing_ with very inhuman characteristics. The closest one that was remotely human was the one in front of Lauren. It looked like a grown woman, with short, velvet red hair and wearing something like a blue, one piece swimsuit and matching stockings. She was, however, the smallest thing around; from my shoulder to my elbow would probably be its length, with something on her back that must have been wings, because she wasn't standing on the floor, but rather, was hovering. In front of Ant was something _growing_ out of the ground and boy did it grow, standing at least a foot taller than him. Its sagging, lumpy skin was brown and had only a single claw growing out of longs stumps out of each side of its body, which I guessed were its arms. I couldn't see its face since it was facing away from me, but judging by Ant's expression, I should consider myself lucky.

Of course, the creature in front of me was no eye candy either. The closest thing I can compare to is a very large, sand-colored dog standing on its hind leg with some human features here and there. It had a tattered loincloth, the color of mucus, tied around what I assumed was the waist, thankfully covering up whatever was there. Its pink tongue stuck out, with drool falling out of its mouth, and its eyes were filled with deranged hunger. It was wildly swinging a spiked wooden club in its human-looking hands and yelling out things that were impossible for me to decipher.

However, the worst was towering over Sarah. The being was slightly taller than the thing in front of Anthony with green skin and black hair that was as crazy-looking as the dog in front of me, braided with...are those human bones? It was bulging with muscles even our football coach would be jealous of, wearing a rather out of place, bright orange wrestler's singlet. In it's hand was a short, one-edged ax and, judging by the discoloration and drippings, I doubt it's been long since the thing made its last kill.

"W...what the hell are these..." Anthony mutters in a voice that was almost as shaky as he was. His eyes were so wide in fear they looked like they were about to pop out of his skull, and he certainly didn't look intelligent with his mouth open. Any other day I would've laughed at his face, but this doesn't seem to be a humorous matter. The ugly creature in front of Anthony twisted its arms and neck, like it was stretching itself out, producing bone pops so nasty, each one made me flinch at the sound.

"Oh, boy! I guess an old man's got to work out more often; this body is creaky!" It said in a gravelly voice.

"Shut it, Waira!" The fairy-thing snapped. "You're only 338 years old! Isn't that, like, middle-aged for your kind?" Did I actually hear that right? Waira, I guess was its name, moved what I think was its shoulders in a shrug, as if not thinking too much of it. It hunched forward to get a better look at Anthony.

"Oh, great, we're being serviced!" It turned its head a little and faced the human-thing in front of Sarah. I wanted to puke at the sight of its face: a long, sharp row of bristle for teeth, a practical snout with tusks growing out of the each side of its mouth, and nasty white eyelashes were protruding out of its head. "We have food waiting for us the instant we get out. Isn't that great, Ogre?"

The large, green muscle mountain just grunted, staring coldly at a petrified Sarah. The humanoid in front of me was still jabbering away ceaselessly, brandishing the club. I only managed to understand the word 'Kill!' from the random sounds. The fairy nodded in agreement.

"Kobold is right! Less talking..." She gives the most evil grin to Lauren possible for a 1-foot woman. "_More killing!"_

At the sound of the word 'kill', the dog-thing named Kobold lets out a loud sound that was mix of a wolf's howl and a man's roar and rushes at me, holding the club behind him like a batter about to swing. I jump haphazardly backwards and trip, falling just enough for Kobold to narrowly miss hitting me on the head. The monster tried to swing so hard that he fell along with me and ended up letting go of the club, which spun crazily over me and flew past us.

Being unarmed, it seems, didn't stop the dog from attacking me. He furiously crawled over, like its tripping was my fault, and began attacking me while we were on the floor, clawing and biting me. I managed to grab a hold of its arms and momentarily stopped the assault, however not before he managed to get his nail stuck on my cheek. The beast clamped its jaws on my arm, dangerously close to the smart-watch, but I refused to let go. He yelped like a puppy as I kicked him off and I picked myself up from the ground. I could feel something wet moving down my jawline. I pressed a finger on it and, though it was difficult to tell in the dark, I was positive it was blood. Now I was pissed. I ran back and grabbed the lone club. It was heavy as hell, but I put all my energy into hefting it, knowing this was a life or death situation. I could hear the monster's panting as it was running towards me. Wait for it...a bit more...I put all my energy into a full swing, and luckily connect, right on its mouth. It crumbled onto the dirt floor and let out a human man's scream. Thank god for all those times the coach forced me into baseball practice. After holding myself steady from the powerful swing, I ran towards Kobold to finish the job. As I held the club up to make the killing smash, the thing whimpered frantically and attempted to make contact.

Its voice was clearly not used to talking and made sentences so bad, English teachers would curl into fetal position at the sound, but it managed to get its point across. "Con..tract! Me...be...demon minion...of you!" It picked itself up from the floor very slowly, obviously in pain. The demon growled at me, clearly not happy it almost died and begged for its life. "Me...Kobold...call when need." Its form shimmered in white brilliance and after a blinding second, disappeared, along with club in my hands. I felt rumbling on my wrist and checked my smart-watch.

"The demon Kobold has forcibly joined you!" said a young woman's voice from the device, unnecessarily cheery. I...I did it! I killed the demon! However, there was no time to pat myself on the back. A frightful scream gave me a harsh reminder that I wasn't the only one who was battling for life; I had friends who were in trouble. I had hoped they were doing fine, but really that only had seemed to be the case with Sarah.

She was swiftly dodging large swings from the green giant uncreatively named Ogre, and whenever there was an opening, would pick at the demon with her large pocket knife that she still had. She appeared unscathed, however she was visibly panting, clearly not used to all this running around. What's worse is the fact that she was slowing down and only seemed to be irritating the monster rather than causing any damage, who would roar every time Sarah manged to wound it. If this kept proceeding, she would eventually tire out and Ogre would manage a deadly blow.

Anthony's battle didn't seem to be going very well either. He was being thrown around the field like a rag doll by some kind of green colored blast. His whole body would scrap against the dirt and he'd get up only to be thrown off again. Waira, the demon attacking him, would laugh manically and follow, sinking into the ground and appearing again in front of him.

"Die, die, die!" It would screech amidst its laughing and move its arms strangely, producing more of the green energy and toss Anthony once again. He looked like he needed some serious help, though with his cross-country energy, I feel as though the demon would need to do a lot more than that to cause some real damage.

However, when I viewed Lauren, my heart almost stopped in dread. She was the one who was screaming as she ran around, blindly swatting at the air around her. It was hard to see, but the fairy girl was flying around her, cackling like a witch, creating small bursts of light. She got close at one point and with the hairs on my body standing on end, I realized that the lights were actually small _lighting bolts_. The demon was too busy attacking Lauren to notice that her demon friend was missing and, before I could stop myself, I ran towards her and managed to hit her with my fist, which ended up taking up her entire body. The fairy screamed in pain and fell to the floor, startled by the sudden assault. I grabbed Lauren and held her close to me. She was sobbing; and her whole body and clothes were riddled with burns.

I tried to say something, but I felt pain on my back, like someone pinching me really hard. I turned around to see the midget woman with wings hovering a few feet away from me. She bared her teeth in anger, which, after having to deal with Kobold, looked rather pathetic.

"Deal with your own demon, Blondie!" she yelled. I ended up giving a small smile, which threw her off.

"What demon?" I asked simply. Her eyes widened in shock and the small monster looked around. She clenched her fists and quivered with rage.

"Suffer!" She screamed bringing her hands up over her head like she was holding a ball. Small, yellow sparks danced on her fingers and she faced her palms at me like she was throwing the imaginary ball to me. I instinctively turned and held Lauren, sort of covering her with my body. I felt more violent pinches on my back as well as the smell of something burning.

I felt as though I wouldn't be able to take it anymore, but I could hear whispering from Lauren. "Let go," she commanded. I looked at her and could see angry resolve in her eyes. I instantly understood. Abruptly opening my arms, confusing the fairy, Lauren rushed to the side and let the winged-woman have it with her hand. She yelped in pain as she fell once again to the ground, but Lauren wasn't finished. She followed and began kicking her while on the floor.

"Feel the pain, bitch!" Lauren screamed, stomping on her and clawing at the fairy. Wow...beautiful _and _deadly.

"Stop, stop! I give up, take my life, I am yours to command!" The 1-foot creature shouted and, like Kobold, disappeared in a burst of light. I could hear, "The demon Pixie has forcibly joined you!" from Lauren's laptop, which was still in her arms, and she collapsed. I grabbed her, but she shook me off.

"I'm not a damsel in distress, I'm fine!" She said. I nodded, better not to have her attack me. I looked at Sarah and Anthony. Sarah was doing better: Ogre was on its knees and weakly swinging at her with its ax. After one especially tired looking swing, Sarah rammed her knife into the beast's neck and he fell over, vanishing just like Pixie and Kobold. Sarah knelt, breathing hard, and looked at us. She gave a weak grin and picked herself up, wiping the dirt off her jeans. She walked calmly towards us and looked around, confused.

"Where's...?" She was cut off by a body crashing into her. It was Anthony, who groans as if in deep pain. Shit, I forgot about him! I face the direction in which Anthony came from and got into a ready stance.

...Huh? Where's the demon? I notice something moving nearby me and yelp. I jump back just in time as Waira springs out from the ground, scything the air where I was just standing on with one of its arm claws. I fumble and almost fall but Lauren grabs and steadies me. I look at the tall demon, noticing that parts of its skin was dripping and falling onto the floor of where its standing,if you could actually call it that, sticking again to itself. It wasn't very pretty to say the least, especially with its tongue sticking out and the demon breathing heavily.

"Woo," It pants, "That body of that man is quite sturdy! Being able to take all my magic and _still_ live is really something. Can't wait to kill him and take it over!" It give a toothy grin, which is purely disgusting, which wavers a bit as it regards us. The monster slowly backs away as it dawns on him that his allies are gone.

"No...you can't be serious! You killed them all!?" He shrieks, turns, and flees from us, its arms waving behind it like a cartoon character. I run after it but, for an apparent oldie, it could run. He was getting away and was about to make it to one of the billboards surrounding us when suddenly light flashes in front of it and a burst of fire is produced. It screams and runs even more wildly, attempting to put out the fire that is now burning its already putrid skin. It sinks to the ground and comes up behind me, running the opposite direction, but its skin was still on fire. Another flame engulfs the demon, melting Waira until he falls into a puddle of whatever substance it was made of. It disappears like the ones before it. I look at the others and notice an angry looking Anthony pointing his finger at the spot the demon was just at, smoke coming out of his fingers, his shoulder moving steadily with each breath.

I walk to the group and help Anthony up, being careful not to touch his multiple cuts and scrapes. "You alright?" I ask.

He shoots a glare. "I feel fucking golden, thanks for asking." he curtly replies. Well, at least he's still the same douche we all know and love.

"Hey, he's just being nice!" snapped Lauren.

"Guys, can we not be fighting right now...uh..." Sarah points straight in front of her and we all follow her finger. I gasp and cover my mouth. Over by the entrance, on the other side of the field where there was a gap in the billboard/concession-stands wall were people all gaping at us, curiously studying us. I even noticed a few people with cell phones, most likely recording. Did they see all that?

"Oh no...what do we do?" I whisper. If they all just witnessed a bunch of teenagers fighting a bunch of monsters, I doubt this would go well.

Luckily, Anthony steps in and waves his arm up, bending over in a bow. The people clap and cheer to that, Anthony already fooling them. He stands straight and scratches the back of his head, beaming innocently.

"Uh, sorry folks!" He yells, trying to talk over the fanfare, "You weren't supposed to see that, we're still practicing. But, I hope you enjoyed it!" I decide to follow suit, also waving to the people and giving a hopefully non-fake looking smile. Both Sarah and Lauren do the same and the applause gets louder.

"How did you do that!?"

"Dude, tell us your secret!"

"Hey there, boy, you single?"

"Girls take your tops off!" I quickly hug Lauren at that and glare at the audience; Sarah gives them a "read-between-the-lines" flip off.

"Attention valued riders!" announces the park's speakers. "We will be closing in approximately 15 minutes! We ask that you get your belongings and make your way to the front exit. We hope you enjoyed your day! I repeat..." The crowd disperses and we agree to get out of the field that almost became our graves.

We decided to split up when we got to our cars: Lauren with me and Sarah with Anthony. We were in the middle of the freeway, moving towards the city lights of central El Paso, with long rows of dry desert and mountains passing us by. The night sky was fairly clear and, since there wasn't too much light pollution, we could see the stars. Lauren was asleep, clutching onto the possessed laptop. Her dress was ripped in various places and her hair was standing on end, but even still she looked pretty cute. I took a fearful glance at my smart-watch, a million questions running through my head, all of them unanswered, and I doubt I'd get any answers any time soon.

Thinking of that brought me to the thought of Kisuke. Who exactly is he? After the crowd cleared, he was no-where to be found and, now that I think about it, he wasn't anywhere when the fighting began. The little bastard most likely fled, leaving us for dead, when he could have stayed and helped when we needed him. He obviously knew what was going to happen, so why didn't he tell us anything? And what was with the words on the screen before the actual summoning happened? Clock of destiny? What destiny? I let out a sigh of frustration, too much has happened today.

We make it to Lauren's home, which was built on the side of a mountain so you could see all of the city lights from her porch. She held me in front of her door and pressed her face on my chest. She looks up to my face and is about to kiss me when she gasps.

"What," I chuckle, "Is my face that ugly?" She pouts, meaning that it was serious.

"Your face...I didn't notice how messed up it was." she says in a serious tone. I touch my face cheek and wince. I totally forgot about the wounds I got. Her pout disappears and is replaced with a trance-like face. She holds up her hand, her palm hovering above the cut and begins chanting in a strange language.

"Lauren?" She was making me nervous. She says one word and stops. A light is conjured and washes over me, a warm feeling like placing your face on a soft blanket is set on my cheek and I feel slightly more energized. After the light dims and blinks out of existence, Lauren half-falls and shakes her head. I carefully poke at the spot of the injury and only feel my skin. I rub that spot and notice that even the dry blood has vanished.

"Wow, that's amazing! What did you do?" I inquire. Lauren shakes her head in confusion, massaging her temples.

"I...I don't know. I just heard these weird words in my head and I kind of just whited out for a second." She looks up and yelps in surprise. "What happened the wound?"

"You just made it go away! ...You healed it." I look at the smart-watch and put two and two together.

"More creepy stuff from this stupid thing..." I mutter angrily.

"So kind of like how Anthony did the fire thing?" Lauren questions. I nod. I'm about to rip the demonic device from my wrist when Lauren puts a hand on my arm. I look at her eyes. Their hazel color sparkles brightly under the porch light and the sigh of it soothes me.

"Don't...we might need it later. You saw the text; stuff is going to be happening soon so just hold onto until we see Kisuke or Ant's cousin." She punches her own fist, ready to beat someone up.

"Don't worry, I'll make _sure _they tell something." I couldn't help but laugh. She smiles and hugs me.

"Goodnight," I coo, "Sweet dreams."

She scoffs. "After today, I doubt that's going to happen." She turns around, opens the door, blows me kiss, and shuts it.

I'm on the highway again, thinking about what just happened. The lights that pass me is somewhat comforting and kind of makes me drowsy, but my mind is in overdrive mode. What's going to happen to us? How did those people not panic at the sight of us being attacked by demons? How did Anthony manage to convince them it was all a show? The computers must have done something with their vision is really the only explanation possible but I have no confirmation.

I sigh. Stop thinking about it, you'll give yourself an aneurysm. I look up at the starry sky. I hope everything turns out well...

_That, however, was obviously just wishful thinking. I wonder on a daily basis about the DSP: Why was it created? Why now? Why us? While I'm practically killing myself to find the answers, I have a feeling that, once I do, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. If I even manage to live a life anymore..._

_**End of Day 0**_

**(Rather long) Author's Note: We meet again, my old nemesis: **_**battle scenes. **_**If there's anyone who's adept in this area, please give me a hand. Alright, regarding the practical war going on in my reviews: If it helps, I was kind of already planning to somewhat change the character, Alice, from the get-go in order to help with plot. Oi, I'm a writer, I can mess a little bit with the OCs I'm working with right?**

**C6H12O6 (keep it that way, I should learn some chemistry while I'm at it www) – Would you mind telling me what would be considered too close to the plot? Thank you, though, for telling me!**

** Hades Revolution – Thank for the OC! However, he'll just be a minor character and won't really show up too much, hope you don't mind! And like I said, I can have a little fun with the characters can't I? Hehe.**

** Lucifer Anarchy – Aa, I apologize, but I haven't actually played Devil Survivor 2 (just finished DeSu 1 the other day actually). I guess I didn't make it clear with my writing (curses) but the story will be a slight mix of DeSu and the original Megami Tensei (yes, the SNES one).**

** random person – Thank for the review! You let me know that Anthony turned out to be a dynamic (and funny) character (success!). He is a bisexual, which is supported by him flirting with the group of girls in chapter 2.**

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Day 1: Introductory Lessons**

**Chapter 5**

_**Initializing analysis**_

_**Subject: Andy G.**_

_**Age: 16**_

_**General Overlook:**__**An optimistic young man who moved to America from Spain. The life of his current surroundings fascinates him and he takes every day in appreciation. **_

_ I hope that the sacrifices made during these trying times were not in vain. We did our best to help as many as we could, but there was only so much we could do; the strain on us was so difficult. Please...for me...make the right decision._

?'s POV

I stare out the window in anticipation. Something doesn't feel right. A breakout? I glare at the phone lying on my bed. That little prick shouldn't be doing this: I don't care if the time is already here, I can handle and change things on my own, we don't need to bring innocents into this! I must have looked really angry because suddenly, Orion appeared sitting on the bed, covering the phone with his body.

"Sorry." I grumble. I prop my head up with an arm and look again out the window.

"I suggest we go out today," Orion quietly says, "I sense a demon nearby..."

Without turning, I raise an eyebrow. "Isn't there demons all around us? What makes this one so special?"

"It took over...a person's body." I whip around and stare at Orion, who's holding his head as if in pain. "I sense...malice..." His eyes snap open wide and he returns my stare, "It's going to kill someone today!"

Andy's POV

I blink my eyes a couple of times to get used to the morning rays, still lying on my bed, the sheets covering my body. I stretch, yawn, and throw off the blankets, knowing that the group would be upset if I showed up too late: they'd most likely start without me. I roll up the curtains, flooding my room with light from the window, open the dresser, throw my pajamas in a bin, make my bed...just the regular morning routine.

After stuffing my laptop and other equipment of importance, I head down the stairs into the kitchen, which was connected to the living that housed the T.V.

"Good morning!" I shout in Spanish. The greeting is returned by both my Dad and younger sister, who were watching the news with interest. We were all bilingual in the family, me more than the others, but my Dad preferred us speaking our first language when at home with no guests.

As I start getting the pans and cooking utensils out, I look around the room. I'm about to open my mouth to ask something but am quickly cut off by my little sister. "He's still in his room sleeping." I stare at her, stunned, but then crack a smile. It's something I tend to ask every weekend so of course she would be used to it. Who I was looking for was my older brother, who would normally be rushing me on a normal weekday to get things ready so we could get to school on time. While it is still a weekday, Thursday I believe, it is now summer break and boy how he uses that time to get his sleep.

I focus again on the food; I decided on omelets for today and work like a bee at getting the ingredients prepared. While doing this, I vaguely listen to the news. Mostly sunny to be expected for the rest of this week...no sausages in little sister's omelet...I switch my mind on the subjects of importance.

However, right before I finish making my own omelet, the last one, I stop dead at the announcing of the next news story, mainly due to its location: _El Paso, Texas._

"Yesterday evening, at a popular amusement park in El Paso, Texas, 8 people of varying ages, seen here, sneaked into an off-limits area of the park." On the television screen was a rather low-quality video of...some kind of dance going on? It was much too dark to decipher much, but you could vaguely see some figures bouncing around in a large circular field. On the lower-third was the title, in large white letters: 'Magician's Secret?' I couldn't understand what that had to do with anything until one of the figures points a finger at another silhouette and fire is produced, illuminating the man, who turned out to be of old age.

"At the end of the skirmish," continues the newscaster, "four of the peculiar group are seen, rather beaten up, claiming the whole incident to be a practice for a stage act that the amusement park are planning to put in. The owners of park have not yet revealed this allegation to be true. More on this story later tonight." At the bottom-right corner of the screen was the video URL that was used. I quietly copy it unto my phone and stare intently at one of the people on the screen. _She's just the way he described her _I thought to myself.

"That's clearly a bunch of bullshit!" Cursed my father. My sister quickly smacked him on his thigh.

"Daddy! That's a bad word!" she scolds. He chuckles and ruffles her hair, receiving a pout in return. His laugh was very good-natured and kind of contagious; I ended up stifling a laugh alongside him.

"Sorry, sweetie, I promise I won't do it anymore."

After finishing the "Delicious!" breakfast and cleaning up the table, I strap my bag unto my shoulder.

"Going out?" asks my dad. I turn and nod at him. "Alright...don't be out too late. Be careful on the streets, don't let any assholes tell you what to do, don't get robbed, don't..."

"Yes, yes, Dad, I know, I know," I respond, rolling my eyes. I'm almost at the door when it dawns on me that I haven't said goodbye to the most important person yet.

"Goodbye, Mom!" I yell out. I meet my Dad's eyes, who returns it with a sad, but approving smile. Then I head out the door.

Ah, Red Wing, Minnesota. While nowhere near a major a city as my old home, Madrid, it was still great to be breathing its rather fresh air. I walk down and out the porch, opening the gate and walking out into the sidewalk. The neighborhood was lined with nice-looking homes side by side, with tall trees giving the walkway long shadows for me to duck under, protecting me from the hot rays of the sun. I smile at my surroundings: flowers lining the sidewalk on both sides, people opening up their currents and waving to me, and birds singing their morning songs. One particular bird, a rather small Bobolink, perches itself on a fence nearby. I stop moving, startled, not wanting to scare the pretty animal away. It begins singing a song and, caught by its beauty, I sing along with it and try to match its pitch. I guess this would be good practice before I get with the group.

My friends would've joked about how much of a princess I am, since I continued to sing along with it and actually ended up getting into it. I would laugh off the idea: I just want to enjoy life and appreciate what we have. However, it flew away at the sound of a bush rustling right behind the fence. Out springs…oh no. I look up at the house and give myself a mental face palm, I should have realized where I was. The girl in front of me beams, and while that does sound rather cute, her history twists the smile into a creepy leer if anything.

The girl's name was Annabelle, which I believed was a fitting name considering the fact that she came south from Tennessee and looked like your stereotypical farm girl. Her hair, the color of hay, was fashioned into her iconic pigtails, and wore a soft-red flannel shirt with ripped denim shorts and cowboy boots.

She popped a bubblegum that she was chewing. "Morning, sweetums. I think anyone be blessed to wake up to your sweet voice every day." Her southern accent was heavy.

I took a step back from the fence. "Er, I apologize. I didn't mean to wake you, I just…" She shoots out her hand and grabs a hold of my arm, making me yelp in surprise.

"You were just singing along with that there bird, I know. These eyes aren't just for decoration!" She looks at me up and down. "And boy am I so glad for that…" I laugh nervously and attempt to pry my arm out of her tight grasp, which fails. "Come join me inside!" she invites.

I shake my head. "Uh, I can't right now, sorry! I'm to catch up with my friends at the moment so we may practice for our next video. B-besides, I don't think your dad would want to see me…" Her family is infamous thanks to their dad. He's a known racist, drunk, and has gotten into many fights with the locals. He particularly hates me due to my current occupation, which he thinks "is for girly-girls." That, added with the fact that his daughter is infatuated with me, has created some accidents involving a lot of swearing and a near-miss with a shotgun.

She scoffs. "Oh, that? Don't worry I already convinced him that you're a good person." She glanced at the house in a way that made me worry about how exactly she managed to 'convince' her dad.

I finally manage to get out of her death hold and think for a bit. "Well…if I do go with you, I won't be able to do the song. I'm late as it is…" she looked mortified.

"Oh, really!? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Go, go, and make sure you give me a shout out in your next vid, hun!" she shoots me a wink and waves sweetly while slowly going back down her bush. I wave back, hoping the smile I was giving wasn't too fake looking. I know it's rude to think so, but that girl is actually really scary.

After enjoying the rest of my walk, I stand before multiple, enormous bushes, taller than some houses and planted right next to one another, forming a thick, green wall, with tall trees covering any kind of bird-eye views. I look around and, after making sure the coast was clear, enter through the barely visible hole we made after countless entries. I carefully step through the grassy fort, making sure I don't put any holes in my clothes with the random assortment of twigs and thorns, and finally make it through. I trek a bit further, then turn around for the best view in the world before I enter out hangout spot.

Our location that we chose was rather convenient: an abandoned log-cabin on top of a very large hill overlooking the whole of the town. My whole neighborhood was dotted with trees with the sun overhead casting shadows for walking pedestrians to use for momentary cooling. On the opposite side of where I was standing, you could see the Mississippi River just past a power plant that was hugging the side of a hill as tall as this one. There was also another just-as-large hill off to the left, sort of hiding the entire city in a green hold. There isn't much to do here but, in all honesty, a little peace wasn't bad at all, and it's especially breath-taking at night, since there wasn't much light pollution either. My moment of silence was cut off by the sounds of drums being banged in no particular rhythm. I sighed, turned around, and went inside the wood-cabin.

It was pretty small inside, only having two rooms, with the main room made even smaller with all the things we brought inside. On the side opposite of the door was a brick fireplace, the kind you see in Christmas picture books, with several framed pictures of us lining the shelf. To my immediate left was a sizable oak bookshelf, filled with various books, that I managed to persuade the others with implementing. That day was rather difficult since it barely fit in the room, but it has saved our butts countless of times during finals week so at least the others are appreciative. On my right was a desktop computer. That was also a hard project due to the fact that that was the day we found that this cabin was ancient: it didn't even have an electrical plug. With the combined efforts of us and our able-bodied family members, however, we managed to install this great technology of wonder and, thanks to my dad, we now even have Wi-Fi. We all agreed, after we finished, that it was well worth the struggle: the internet connection is very speedy and the cost was reduced, so if wasn't a huge blow to our wallets.

At the corner of the room was the drum set, facing towards the center. It's metallic edges and cymbals were reflecting the sunlight towards my eyes, requiring me to hold my hand up and cover them, and the loud noises being created by my friend hurt my ears as well. Next to that, on the center-left side of the cabin, between the bookshelf and drum set, was a 30-inch flat screen TV on top of a light-brown wooden desk, which covered the window on the wall, but there was only trees on that region of the cabin. There was another window on the alternate side of the room, with a view of the city, so no big loss there. In the middle of the room, upon a red-and-gold rug, was a large, family couch, facing the T.V.. In front of that couch was a coffee table about the same length, littered with drinks and food from the fridge next to the computer.

"About damn time you got here!" Shouted Albert over his own nonrhythmic drum beating.

I looked at my friend nervously; did he see the news? Albert got up from the seat and stretched. He was wearing a dark green t-shirt that seemed a little tight on him, since his muscles were bulging out of the shirt and it ended showing off a bit of skin as he was stretching, as well as some green camouflage cargo-shorts and causal white Nike shoes. He was tall, around 6 feet I believe, with very short black hair and heavily tanned from all the jobs he's done outside. Just from looking at him, you know you wouldn't want to mess with the dude, and if you knew that he was in boxing, you'd be even more intimated. In contrast, he was actually rather down-to-earth: very loyal to those he likes, enjoys messing with people, and kind of clumsy. He was like a big goofy brother to our group.

With the countless amount of girls asking him on a date, you'd think he'd have a girlfriend. Well, yes and no. The reason I was on edge about him was due to the fact that I think it was his old lover, if you could call it that, on the news. See, he used to live in El Paso before moving here and used to be in an important relationship with a girl who was asexual. According to Albert, they were meant for each other. He'd take her out on many dates and they would enjoy each others' presence to the fullest. When he found out he was to be moving, he swore that he would go back to her and she agreed to wait. It sounds like something out of Disney movie, but he was serious about it, rejecting anybody who asked him out. He told us about her, in this very room no less, and it matched the girl on screen.

He gave me a quizzical look. "You look like you just saw a ghost or something. What's up Andy?"

Not making eye contact with the large man, I answered his question with another question. "Did you see the news this morning?"

"You actually think I watch that?" he snorted. "I'm honored; no, why?"

I looked up at the wall above the window facing the town. It was lined with weapons, swords and guns to be exact, that Albert found around a trashcan. The others were so fascinated with it that, ignoring my protests, they sharpened the blades and loaded the guns. They all have too much fun attacking the bushes when they're overgrown, heck I think they actually look forward to that.

"N-nevermind," I finally stammered, "I'll tell you later." He squinted his eyes in suspicion, but shrugged it off and headed to the bathroom, the only other room in the cabin.

"Good morning, Andy!" my friend, Kimberly, yelled. She was beaming at me, as bubbly as usual. Kim was the first one who talked to me when I moved here, so I'm really most comfortable whenever she's around. Today she was wearing a white spaghetti strap top with white-washed holey jeans and leather sandals; her clothing just as bright as her. I noticed that her dark-brown hair was tied back in a ponytail as she got up from the couch and pulled me along with her, arm in arm.

"Why so late?...Did you pull a 'Snow-White' on us again?"

I chortled at that. "I did, but that's not the reason I was late. You-know-who caught me again."

She groaned and rolled her eyes. "One of these days, you have _got _to tell her straight up like 'Bitch, I don't have time for you. Back the fuck away!'" She shoved the air in front of her as an example.

"Oh come on, Kim! You know Andy is too nice for that." mused Mae from the couch, not looking up from her PSP Vita screen. "The worst he could possibly do is tell someone to go away, and even then he'd do that as politely as possible."

Mae was the last of our little quartet. She, too, was introduced to the group by Kim, which is strange because their clothing would tell you they were complete opposites. Black was her color, wearing a black t-shirt with a band logo on it under a black leather jacket, as well as black skinny jeans with a chain hanging off from the side. Even her hair was a short black, only reaching her shoulders, though her bangs were long enough to always cover her right eye, so she was constantly pushing off her hair. She had many piercing in her coffee-with-milk brown skin: earrings, snake bites, belly button piercings, and some others that I forgot the names of. There were only two contrasts in her dark complexion: Her startling bright-red shoes with Marvel characters on it, which she was really proud of, and her personality.

Again, she seemed the opposite of Kimberly when just viewed from a far, and she could be whenever she was in a calm mood, but she can get just as crazy as our friend. She enjoys going to parties and chatting with people among other things. However, she's just as dangerous as Albert, the recent scar on her left eyebrow evidence of that. She flashed me a warm smile, still not diverting her attention from the game, which I returned.

"Sleep well?" I asked. She nodded.

"For once I didn't need coffee, though that would still be amaze-balls if I could get some."

"If we have any money after today, let's get some." She paused her game and turned to me, giving me a wicked grin.

"Andy, you're amazing!" I laughed at that.

"Hey, I want some, too!" Kimberly whined. I nodded, promising her some coffee as well, which made her visibly happy.

Albert walked towards us, wiping his hands on shorts. He looked slightly angered.

"Alright, Andy, what was it you were going to tell me before you went creep-o silent?" His arms were folded across his chest and his eyes were bearing down on me. I coughed nervously.

"Well, if you saw the news, you probably would've known." I answered. That wasn't satisfactory; he kept glaring at me. I began biting my thumbnail then snapped my fingers as it came into my mind.

"Oh yeah! I wrote the URL." I took out the office chair from the computer and booted it up. The others crowded around me, Mae and Kim on either side and Albert looming over me, arms still folded. Did it bother him that much?

I typed in the URL, directing us to a YouTube video. The scenes from the news reel replayed on the screen, the quality still just as bad. At random times, the video would glitch out, making the old man who was doing something to the tall man even taller than him, at least 7 feet, or make the woman who was jumping around with another girl seem only 1 feet with something growing on her back and making her seem as though she wasn't on the ground. It was strange to say the least; the camera used was probably really terrible. Mae and Kim were discussing on how the people could do all that stuff while Albert studied it in silence. On the last minute of video, it cut to the four teenagers bowing and waving to the ovation.

"Wait, pause it!" Commanded Albert in a frightened voice. Looks like my fears were confirmed as he pushed me aside and examined the girl on the screen. She was wearing blue, from what I could tell, with glasses and exceedingly long, straight hair. She kind of looked like an apprentice librarian.

"That's…her…that's her, that's Sarah!" Albert was pressing on the screen so violently, I was scared he was going to break it.

"Dude, calm down." Said Mae, pushing off her bangs. "We have eyes, we know. You said she stayed in El Paso, right?" He nodded, still looking at the video in wonder. He shook his head in frustration and closed the web browser.

"O.K," he sighed, "I can…figure this out later." He gave a shaky smile. "Let's go do what we originally intended to do." We all slowly nodded and he marched through the front door.

We all glanced at each other in confusion, then decided it was best not to try to question his behavior. We followed Albert back down into the street, turning off all the electrical equipment. Who would've known that something so simple as going to the store would turn out to be so crazy?

**(Slightly Long) Author's Note: I am just barely keeping up this "update-every-Monday" thing. I hecked up on the last chapter (thank you all for letting me know); my writing wasn't good enough to allow you to figure out that there was actually two different POV's in two separate places there, much like in this chapter. I guess it's best to put up a small poll (for the 4 of you who regularly put reviews): should I state which person's POV it is like I did in this chapter or leave it to the text for you to figure it out? And C'mon guys, let's not start another fight please~ .A./**

** C6H12O6: Well, as you suggested before, I'm writing this more as a standalone story, so I'm not going to follow demon strength in comparison to Devil Survivor unless it helps with the plot (and thank you, yes I meant Shin Megami Tensei whoops).**

** random person: Thank you! He may or may not appear soon~**

** Lucifer & Hades (Brother and Sister?): In case you are still wondering about the fight and how things are being viewed as strange, please hold: ~*all will be revealed*~. Also, I won't be able to get a hold of any games due to my lack of funds, sorry (though thanks for the tip!). P.S. Lucifer, Sorry I forgot to put in the other one, but I would love to read/help you with your story!**

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Day 1: Introductory Lessons**

**Chapter 6**

_**Initializing analysis**_

_**Subject: Kimberly M.**_

_**Age: 17**_

_**General Overlook: A happy-go-lucky young woman who wishes to live life to the fullest. She speaks whatever is in her mind, whether it be good or bad, and attracts many acquaintances with her conversational skills.**_

Kimberly's POV

Is Best Buy really...well the best buy? I've seen _much _cheaper prices on that video game lying around the city. Then again, considering our small town, there isn't much selection to choose from, so I guess we can't really have the absolute best for the absolute least. Mae and I were at the center of the large store, looking around and attempting to pass the time as Albert and Andy were somewhere off at the corner, talking to employees about information on the stuff we needed. What they were getting, in case you haven't clued in yet, was sound editing software that really only the likes of Mae and Andy can actually work with. While we are rather famous around here and our music is well-liked by the public, there are, admittedly, some things we could obviously fix. For example, Albert tends to get a little _too _crazy with the drums at times, drowning out Andy's already soft voice, a point we consistently remind him of, but the guy's skull is as thick as he is and in practically all of our videos –especially in drum solos–Albert bangs the crap out of those instruments. I meant all of that non-sexually.

Something catches my attention at the corner of my eye and I lean in near Mae's ear to whisper something, who was closely studying the back of the 20th overpriced X-Box game. "Hey, cute guys at 3 o' clock."

She sighs and puts the game back on the rack. "Are you sure they're cute?" I flick my eyes back and forth in the direction of the targets, as to not make it so obvious. Mae, looking bored, calmly follows my gaze.

The men were both standing a little off to the our right, about 15 feet away. Both were tall and blonde, with one lean and the other slightly bulging with muscle. Both had short cropped hair, wearing beige cargo shorts and striped shirts of different color, although both look as if they were bought at the same store. Their white skin was slightly red, most likely from playing an outdoor sport of some sort. They were looking in our direction, although I couldn't tell if they looking at us or something that happens to be in the same vicinity as us. I really hope its the former cause the lean one is really speaking volumes to my eyes.

Mae groans and crouches, browsing the games on the lower rack. "Gross, why did you choose the football jocks." I furrow my brows, "Football?" I turn my head around, not caring if they notice now, and examine them. I look again at Mae. "They are not!"

She nods her head, still focused on the video games. "Yep, Devin and...Larry, I think their names are? The lean one is the runner back and the big dude is on defense."

"How come I never seen them before, huh?" I fold my arms, knowing she wouldn't be able to come up with an answer.

As usual, she does. "They're freshmen at the University; they don't go to our school. Besides, why do you want them? I heard they put their nasties in more girls than all of us combined." My heart sank. I glanced at the boys again, who now don't look as appealing as before.

"Actually..." Mae puts a finger on her chin in thought. I look at her anxiously as she turns to stare the men. She squints her eyes then snaps her fingers. "Yeah! Sorry, I was wrong about that."

I jump up and down, giddy about my chances finally rising. "Really!? Oh sweet, I can-"

"They're actually gay." She says simply. My heart sinks as well as my jaw. I full blown stare at them this time, which they notice, and see little things that I probably should have been aware of before: them touching each others' arms, smiling at each other constantly, standing in strange ways...basically things that screamed homosexuality. They wave at me, beaming.

"N-no! I still have a chance." My voice slightly cracked. I pull up Mae, who drops a copy of Dead Rising 2.

"Argh! Kim, stop, I was looking at the game. What do you want!?"

"You are going to help me get these guys, even if it becomes a threesome, I don't care, just do it!" I snap. She pulls her arms away.

"No. The last time I helped you pick up dudes, they were, as I predicted, gay, and they mistook me for a guy!" I couldn't help but chuckle at that one; mainly because she was right.

Her hair was pretty short for a girl, long in guys' standards, and wore a lot of lengthy, black clothes. She also didn't have much of a...how do I put this without sounding rude...oh screw it: Chest. It doesn't help that she wears a bunch of jackets and hoodies, even in summer, so anything there could be mistaken for something else. The incident she was bringing up was this one time at a Starbucks where I noticed a cute guy, kind of like Andy, who we started talking to. Turns out, he was into dark-looking guys and wholly mistook Mae for one. The poor dude was so apologetic that he bought her all the coffee and sweet bread she wanted, which left a hefty hole in his wallet.

I sighed in defeat and rested my head on my arms on top of the game racks, allowing Mae to go back to her treasure hunt. I study Andy and Albert, facing away from me, side-by-side. Watching them, it came to me just how different the two boys were. Albert, like Mae, looked serious from afar and was basically testosterone personified. With his height, tan, and muscles, Andy looked like an ant standing next to him. Speaking of, he was the _total_ opposite of Albert: small, dresses kind of nerdy, and kind of holds himself in an effeminate manner. Like right now: wearing tight-fitting dark jeans, a plain black, v-neck sweater over a buttoned-up shirt, complete with a tie, with the sleeves rolled up, showing his pale, thin arms, and standing with his knees together and holding his hands behind his back. The metal-blue-and-black checkered messenger bag he always carries around doesn't help at all. The guy is such a loser, he almost always needs help with a lot of things that doesn't involve school. Trust me, that guy can _handle _school. He's always politely asking anyone nearby to lend a hand. He's not afraid of anyone really; he'll accept help from everybody, be it a girl, smaller than he, to a convict male who has murdered before.

The surprising thing is: they all agree. Anyone he asks always says "yes" to him, almost desperately, like they crave his attention. Andy turns around and gives me an apologetic smile along with a small wave. I return both, but as he is about to tell me something, the worker who was assisting them drags him off somewhere, an arm around his shoulder. I sigh wistfully: one of these days, that boy is going to get kidnapped.

I spot, out the corner of my eye, a middle-aged man that seemed...off. The remainder of his chestnut hair fell over his crazy eyes, wearing a long-sleeved suit and trousers that felt uncomfortable just to look at. His gaze was following Andy and he was shaking badly, like mini-spasms were happening every second. Our eyes met and he quickly ducks outside. I shrug and thought nothing of it. Boy, how I was going to regret that later.

* * *

><p>We were taking the long way back to the cabin, greeting fans of ours and just taking a stroll near the Mississippi river. Albert carried the package we bought, which, with the combined efforts of the guys, we managed to get for half-off. Yep, being a star is in a small town is great.<p>

Albert stretches his arms. "So Andy, how about that coffee now?" He says.

"Hey, he promised _me_ the coffee," Mae cuts in, holding her new video game. "Get the fuck out."

They glare at each other and begin yelling out insults at each other, making Andy nervous. He gestures with his hands to calm them down, moving his head constantly to make a eye contact. "Please, no fighting! We have a lot of money left over, so I'll treat you both." They both stop their arguing and look at Andy simultaneously. Both of their eyes have a pained look of guilt.

"No, you don't have to do that!" Albert quickly says.

"Yeah, it's fine, I got moo-lah, I can pay!" Mae quickly follows. Andy gets taken aback, tilting his head to the side in confusion. I shake my head: this guy has them wrapped around his finger and the dummy doesn't even realize it...I want 30 of him.

"Uh, we can worry about that later." he says. "First, let's drop the stuff off at our hangout and then go out to eat." He grabs a hand-held GPS device from his bag and fiddles with the screen.

"It says here it'll be around 11:30 by the time we reach our place. Wow, we still have a lot of time left!" He continues walking, focused on the screen. So much, in fact, that he bumps into someone, falling back from the impact.

"Sorry!" He squeaks while on the ground. I gasp; it's the same creepy man from before. His eyes peer into Andy, making him clearly scared. He scrambles up and bows awkwardly.

"I-I apologize! I wasn't looking, please forgive me!" The man shakes his head, his eyes not once moving away from the smaller boy.

"It's alright..." His voice...did not sound right. It sounded bad, like he was in a scream-o fest the night before and was just barely recovering. He takes a step closer to Andy.

"You...you're...special." The man whispers. Andy takes a step back as the man takes another forward.

"U-um...thanks? If you're talking about our music, you should really compliment my friends." He waves a hand in our direction. "They're the real reason we're so good."

"..Special..." repeats the man, sounding as though he were on a high.

"Uh, anyways," Andy continues, "We have to get going. Look forward to our next-." His sentence gets cut-off by a violent grab on his wrist, the man pulling him in closely and pulling out a kitchen knife from his back pocket. His eyes look demented and he's breathing rapidly. He cackles manically.

"Special!" The creep chants. "You're special and you'll help, dead or alive!" He brings his knife up and is about to slash down on a screaming Andy. However, the man grunts and tumbles backwards; receiving a well-placed punch from our big brother boxer, the weapon flying to the middle of the street.

Albert gets into a boxer's ready stance, bouncing protectively in front of Andy. "What the hell is your problem!?" He yells. Mae makes a quick grab for the knife and makes a wall with Albert.

"A fucking kitchen knife? How lame can you be?" She laughed.

The man gets up and snarls at them. "Get away, you useless people!"

"Wow, that comment was _so_ cutting, I'm hurt." Mae responds. I can't help but chuckle at the confused and triumphant expression of the man, thinking she was actually being serious.

"Mere words hurt you? Aha! You humans are weaker than I thought, that makes you easy prey!" He lunges at them, a crazy grin on him. Mae calmly steps to the side, hands in her pocket like the cool girl she is, and sweeps him off-balance with her left leg, followed by a right hook from Albert. The blow was so powerful that the man soars down the hill to our left and goes down into the river with a _Splash!_

I hadn't realized it before, but there was a crowd forming a sort of crescent shape around us, now clapping and screaming vulgarities at the Mr. Creep. A little boy with a sand-colored bowl-cut walks up to us, much against the protests of who I assumed was his mother.

"Are you O.K, Andy?" The little boy quips in an adorably high-pitched voice. Andy smiles at him and nods.

"Yes, thank you very much." The little boy giggles and he pats him on his head. The crowd disperses, offering us snacks/rides/etc., while only offering the man some stones and curses. We decline them all and continue to walk to our hangout.

* * *

><p>"That was pretty crazy. Does anyone know that pedophile?" Asks Albert. We were back in our cabin, Albert and I on opposite sides of the couch while Andy was on the computer, installing and figuring out the new program with the help of Mae, who was leaning over next to him.<p>

I shrug at the question. "I saw the weirdo while we were at Best Buy," I point out. "I think he was also stalking Andy there."

Andy shivers at that. "You could have said something then."

Another shrug. "Well, whatever, be glad we have the likes of Albert and Mae with us, right?" He sighs and shakes his head, continuing to click and accept whatever thing it was asking for on the computer.

"What was up with him though?" Says Mae. "He kept saying that Andy was special or something and referred to the rest of us as 'humans'. Like, what the fuck does that make you then?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if that guy wasn't human." Albert replies.

As if on queue, the door bursts open as if being kicked, and standing in doorway was the man again. Andy screams and scurries out of his chair, wrapping his arms around himself in fright. Mae and Albert jump up instinctively, glaring at the guy who's eyes screamed insanity. He was holding another knife with both hands on the handle in front of him and continuously muttering things to himself.

"You're back again!?" I shout. "Do you not understand that we don't want anything to do with you? Why are you trying to hurt us?" He didn't answer me, just kept on talking in a low tone that made the words inaudible.

Mae cracks her knuckles. "Maybe this time I should grab the knife and ram it down your throat," she threatens. The man still doesn't respond. I noticed something strange about him: He looked perfectly fine. Not more than 30 minutes have past since the beating we gave him, but it looks as if nothing had happened; He wasn't wet, although he was still wearing the same clothes; he didn't have any bruises or signs of injury from where Albert punched him...it was peculiar.

He walks into the cabin, chuckling crazily. "It's beginning!" He says amidst the laughter. "Everything is going to end, bye-bye, permanent goodnight!" This is was totally freaking me out.

"Speak sense, asshole!" Yells Albert, which only produced more laughter from the crazed man.

He takes another step and by the far the most weirdest thing happens. His entire leg kind of glitches; like in a scratched video game, bending in a way that shouldn't be possible and flashing into a purple-colored limb momentarily and turning normal again. I blink my eyes repeatedly, did that actually just happen?

"W-what was...?" Apparently, Andy must have seen it too, for he was furiously rubbing his eyes. The man took another step closer and soon, his whole body was glitching out. I was too busy staring at the man that I hadn't realized that Mae was standing next to me, the pistol on the wall now in her hands.

"Get the hell out of here, you fucking dick!" She yells.

"Wait, Mae no!" It's too late, she pulls the trigger and a loud _bang _resonates through the cabin. I cover my ears, but the ringing was as sharp as ever. I look up at the man...and gasp.

Absolutely, nothing happened to him. Other than the fact that he was still glitching, he was still perfectly normal. No blood, no wounds, no tear in his clothes. I look behind him and see that the bullet passed through: there was smoking hole on the floor...but...that can't be right!

"Argh! This body is so useless, I just...I just want to..." The man literally _rips_ the skin on his arm off after saying that, revealing the purple color I saw before. He grabs his face and contorts the features: lengthening the chin, ripping off his hair, it was absolutely disgusting to watch.

"Wh-...what the fuck?" Albert quietly mutters as the form of the man changing entirely. His overall stature shrinks in height, his stomach becomes the equivalent to that of a man who's had too much to drink and doesn't move out of the couch at all, his limbs become bony and his fingers gnarled. At what I think is the end of the transformation, the thing twists its neck at a 90 degree angle, forming a horrible bone-snap that make it seem like it hasn't gotten up from its bed in days.

It blinks its now paper-blank eyes at me. "Much better," it purrs, still with the cracked voice of the other man. It grins, showcasing his new fangs. Mae shoots another round at it, this time at its head, but it ended up repeating the same incident as before; passing it through, uselessly. The demon lets a high-pitched laugh. "You're dumber than Kobolds! Don't you understand that that doesn't do anything!?"

Mae screams a swear and throws the gun at the thing, which of course goes through like it was made of air. He takes a step towards the now unarmed girl. "Now you're irritating me. I think I'll kill you first!" With surprising speed, the monster lunges and swipes at Mae with its claws. Luckily, she was faster, sidestepping the attack and backing up closer to the door.

"Guys!" She yells, surprisingly defiant. "I don't know if that thing can even make contact with us, but I don't suggest you try to attack!" Andy runs to her, trying to get as much space as possible from himself and the former creeper.

However, he stops short, right in front of Mae, and stares wide-eyed at something behind her. We all turn to look and I notice a tall, broad shouldered man standing behind Mae with a look of concern. This one was actually attractive: he had a lean build, wearing a black, short-sleeved shirt, like what Albert would wear, that greatly complimented the muscles on his chest. He had long, wavy black hair that stopped around his eyebrows at the front, but reached the back of his chin on the sides. This was possibly the worst time to be ogling someone, but I _really _couldn't help it.

"W-who are you?" Andy squeaks, probably more scared than before. The man doesn't answer; instead, he whips his head around after looking at the monster behind him and yells, "Alice! It's here, this is the one." He looks at us again. "Follow me!" He commands, turning to run outside. All we had to do was look at each to mutually agree and followed the handsome stranger. Anything was better than being stuck with whatever the hell that thing was, who, speaking of, was clutching its head like it just obtained migraines the instant the man walked in.

Out in the open air, the man walked slightly down the hill towards a girl about our age that was near the bottom. She had light brown hair that reached her shoulders with braids joining it at both sides of her head. She was wearing a white frilly blouse and simple, light colored jeans. The poker face she was wearing was pretty good; I couldn't tell if she was amused or pissed off.

"Up there." Reports the tall man. "It's a Gaki; I'm glad we managed to get in here in time."

She nods absentmindedly, staring at us. Her brown eyes, a shade darker than her hair, were examining us like we were books: I felt uncomfortable.

"Would you mind not doing that?" I blurted out. She nods, seeming to know what I was talking about, and regards the monster, the Gaki, who was lumbering outside of the cabin the moment I told the girl that. He looked…_hungry_, whether that was for actual food or for us, I didn't want to know. The girl, Alice, takes a step forward but I quickly block her path.

"Whoa there! No way you're going to take that thing on. Mae had a gun and shot that weird thing and it just passed by it like it was made of water or something." She folds her arms in thought.

"Yes...Since I decided to leave my DSP at home, I would see why nothing would work." That just threw me off. She chuckles at the face I make. "Don't worry, I decided not to bring it because I was positive I could take on whatever demon Orion sensed." She looks again at the Gaki, who has now spotted us and was looking rather pissed off. "By the looks of it, I was _way _in the clear; this thing won't stand a chance."

DSP? Demons? Orion? I grabbed my head in frustration and stepped out of the stranger's way, she looks like she knows what she was doing. The others, who were behind me, followed suit, leaving nothing in the way of the girl and the monster.

Gaki growls at her. "You! You're the one they were warning me about! If I kill you now, I'll be splendidly rewarded." It licks its lips. "Delicious!"

Alice scowls in disgust. "Who's they? Tell me what you know!" She demands. The monster only laughs at the question, clearly she wasn't going to get an answer. She shrugs.

"Fine; I could have let you go, but your unwillingness to cooperate has sealed your fate." She raises her left arm, palm facing the demon. "Let's finish this Orion."

The man nods and soon becomes a blur, appearing suddenly behind the demon. Gaki cackles as he ducks out of the way of Orion's kick and attempts to counterattack with a clawed swipe. However, it is stopped short by a sudden-formed block of ice, which stops the attack, leaving Gaki screeching in anger. He gets greeted by Orion's knee to his face, knocking the monster down the hill. With a wave of her hand, Alice sends a ball of fire at the demon, burning the monster while on the ground. As Gaki pathetically rolls on the floor, Orion jumps high into the air and smashes the demon with a fist on its beer-belly. The strike was so strong that the ground beneath the monster cracked. Gaki makes one last scream of pain before fading into a flurry of light like fireflies.

Our group was just staring in awe the whole time. There was moments silence.

"That...was...AMAZING!" Shouts Albert. Alice turns, surprised by the remark, but gives a small smile. The others crowd around our heroine, flooding her with questions that were most likely overwhelming. I hung back, staring at Orion, who held his hands up at the little lights floating around the grave of Gaki. The lights circle Orion and disappear, while Orion himself makes a relieved expression and sighs as if he just drank a refreshing soda. He turns to look at us and we make eye-contact. He gets nervous and quickly runs to Alice's side; I guess I wasn't supposed to see that. I, too, join the others.

"Look, please, just listen for a bit." Alice says, hushing my excited friends. "I know you're all very confused and probably frightened."

"That's an understatement," Mae scoffs.

"I know it may sound strange, but would you please join me for a bit? We can head over to my cafe and I can explain things there. I have a little proposal for you all, and with the events to be coming, I'm going to hope that you agree with it."

"And if we don't?" I ask. She gives me a grave look.

"I doubt you'll reject the idea, especially considering that it'll be a life-or-death matter." With that happy thought, she turns and goes into the bushes; the entrance to our hideout, followed by the man named Orion, who looks back at me once more before ducking under the greenery. The rest of us hang back for a bit.

"...Should we really follow?" I ask.

"Well, she did save our life." Andy says.

"Yeah, and she seems to know about what's going on." Albert agrees.

"Wait," Mae cuts in. "Did you just see what she just did? That girl can probably kill us in the same way!"

"Finally someone with sense!" I remark. Albert and Andy, however, didn't look convinced.

"Look," begins Albert, "The girl just risked her ass to save ours, at the very least we should hear her out." Andy nods. "Besides..." he continues, "I have a feeling...this might be related to whatever was going on with Sarah." That...just made me feel bad. I sigh.

"Fine, let's do this then. But if she does end up being a psycho-killer with weird powers, I'm going to make hell seem like a _nice_ place when I'm done with you." Albert gulps at that, but accept responsibility and we all head into the town once again.

_ Funny how things become so ironic when you look back at them. Oh poor Albert, you have _no _idea_ _how related things are. And, at the moment, hell is practically a vacation compared to the things that are happening now._

**Author's Note: Well, crap; I missed the weekly update. Sorry about that folks! I had a tennis tournament the other day so I was pretty preoccupied. Hopefully I can get chapter 7 up by Monday and continue on schedule. Since none of you but one actually voted, I'm going to put the perspectives up.**

** The Hell Siblings (LA & HR): I apologize, I haven't seen either Bleach or Naruto since I was 10, so I can't really give much advice other than technical writing things like grammar and stuff, sorry! Also, I hope you don't mind the small changes I made to the OCs!**

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


	7. Chapter 7

**Day 1: Introductory Lessons**

**Chapter 7**

_**Initializing analysis**_

_**Subject: Albert S.**_

_**Age: 17**_

_**General Overlook: A man who enjoys his life thoroughly. A champion boxer while residing at El Paso, he aspires to use his strength for those he cares for. He does, however, get angered at certain aspects of his personality and living conditions; a leading factor and motivator for his dream.**_

_ We'll make this through. I'll __make_ sure _we make it through this. __There might have been some bad experience while enduring this, but that should only propel us forward! Let's go and make everything right!_

Albert's POV

"This is wholly unbelievable." I said.

"Dude, demons might take over the world, and you find _this _to be hard to believe?" She responds.

"Hey…isn't this the guy you had a thing for beforehand?" Says the tall guy next to her. She kicks him in the shin, producing a yelp of pain.

"Ant, I would honestly believe you would've learned to keep your mouth shut when around Sarah." Says the blonde-haired one named Phillip. I stare, mouth gaping, at my former girlfriend. I just couldn't believe it; she was here, _with me_, in Minnesota!

* * *

><p>O.K., O.K., let me rewind a bit since I probably confused you. Carrying hushed conversations, we followed the girl, Alice, around the city. I tried to remember where exactly it was she was taking us, but normally Andy's the one who remembers details like that. For me, if I don't visit a place often, I won't know its name; I'll probably even forget it exists.<p>

"So, uh, any ideas on where we're going?" I asked quietly, not very well trusting the girl. I know I agreed to take responsibility for this, but did you see her moves? Who knows what was going on through her head.

"Something about a cafe?" He responds uncertainly.

"Or maybe a quiet place where she could kill us quietly." Mutters Kim angrily, who was walking with Mae a few steps behind us. I sigh; clearly this girl isn't going to be rational.

"_Come on_, can't you just give her a chance?"

"No." She says curtly. Then she blinked hearts at the man next to Alice. "I can give him all the chances he needs though..." Gross.

The guy next to Alice, who looked like her boyfriend from the way he gets really protective anytime one of us get close, suddenly keeled over, clutching his chest with a look of pure agony on his face. The rest of us stop, looking in worry as Alice rushes over, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Orion, what's wrong?" She asks, her poker face slightly masked with worry. Alright, so it _was_ Orion; I almost thought his name was Onion. Although that doesn't make his name any less weird.

"Terminal…" He whispers through pained breaths, "4 DSPs…They'll...be vital...in the events to come." He steadies his breathing and clears his throat, standing up tall once again. He shoots us a look of seriousness. He looks as if he was going to say something, then shakes his head and walks on alone.

"Wait, don't just do that!" Mae shouts. Orion ignores her, continuing on with his fist clenched. She scoffs at that, "Aren't _you _fun at parties." Alice pulls out plain, white-colored flip phone from her pocket and glares at it as if it just committed a crime. She looks away, still annoyed, and forces the device back into her jeans, marching at the same fast pace as Orion, who now put a lot of distance between us.

"Let's go." She orders. I look at Kim uncertainly, who gives me a "this is totally your fault" look and pushes past me, a nervous looking Andy following at her heels. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and turn to face a sympathetic looking Mae.

"Hey, don't worry," she says, "If anything goes wrong, we can both handle it." She gives me a smile that doesn't really warm me and continues on, hands in her leather-jacket's pockets. I give a dejected sigh and look at a nearby alleyway. Maybe if another demon were to attack, I wouldn't feel as doubtful as I do now. At the other end of the alley, I notice some with something long flowing behind their back. I blink and look harder, but the person or thing was already gone.

"Albert!" yells Kimberly, kicking me out of my trance. I shake my head and run to catch up with the group.

* * *

><p>A while later, while we were in close proximity of Alice, a woman passing us by begins to glitch out, just like Gaki, flashing something that looked like webbed bat-wings. We all back away quickly, getting ready to run if need be, but Alice calmly regards the demon, nodding at her as if they were old acquaintances. The woman returns the greeting and looks at the rest of us over, shooting me a wink which sends shiver down my spine. No thanks, I'm waiting for someone.<p>

"How come its not attacking us?" Kim inquires.

"Not all demons are aggressive," explains Alice, "there are demons all around us; they just hide within human bodies." The thought of a Gaki attempting to hide within somebody's clothes came into my mind, making me smile humorously. Alice gives me a disapproving frown.

"I really hope you don't find the possession of a human's body funny." I almost puke as I remember how Gaki was ripping the skin off of the crazy man. I wonder how his life used to be.

"So then why did that one show itself?" Mae quips.

"Oh, I don't think that Lilim meant to do so on purpose," Alice says, as though it was obvious, "Orion just has that effect, him being a hunter and all." Mae gives a confused look at sizes Orion up. "What do you hunt for; girls?" I can't help but laugh at her subtlety.

Orion, however, looked offended. "No. In my hee-life, I was the most powerful hunter of all and proposed a challenge to Gaia that I could kill all animals of the world-ho." Whenever the words 'hee' & 'ho' came up, Orion kind of gasped it out, like an accidental hiccup. It was rather strange, but I went against questioning it. After seeing him create a crack in the ground with just a single punch, it was pretty obvious you didn't want to get on his bad side.

"She got angered by that and killed you with a scorpion..." Andy finished, looking at Orion with the same interest that he would with a textbook. Orion held a pained look. "Unfortunately...although thanks to a colleague of hee-mine, Ophiuchus, I was revived with an antidote-ho."

"But...that's..." Andy shakes his head in wonder, "That's the myth of Orion. The _original _Orion. Are you saying you're...?"

Orion wrinkles his nose in offense once again. "_Myth_? I'll have you know that story is very much real."

"Hey, nerds," Alice cuts in, glaring at both men. "Save the discussions for later! We already look weird as it is; we don't need anymore strange looks. Shut up!"

"Yes ma'am!" They both respond fearfully.

"Hey, I kind of like her now..." Kim snickers. That's _never _a good sign.

"That doesn't answer the question though: why do demons get forced to show their true form nearby him?" Mae presses on, ignoring the banter.

Alice shrugs. "I think his occupation, coupled with the fact that I obtained him through irregular ways, might have something to do with it. Although...I fear..." Her features darken as she gets lost in thought. Orion glances at her and gives a tiny shake of the head. She returned the look and nods.

"Never mind, I don't have any evidence to prove that one." We all give her quizzical looks, which she of course ignores, and continues on. Clearly there was something going on; just have to press her for details later.

* * *

><p>After a couple more minutes of walking and passing by people who were actually peaceful demons, we end up at the place where Gaki first attacked us while still in human form: next to the Mississippi River. To our right was a hill, which we pushed the demon down on, with the famous waterway down at the bottom. An island was just on the other side with tall trees surrounding its perimeter, the sun hanging above the tallest of them all. What time was it? To our left was a couple of tall buildings, restaurants, and other things you would normally see in a town.<p>

Orion stumbles once again, clutching his chest as though he got shot. He straightens himself more quickly, hand still over his heart, whips his head up, and stares intensely at something further ahead. When I see what he sees, my breath gets caught in my throat.

_It was Sarah_, standing among three other people who looked about her age. She looked just as I remembered: a cute-librarian with an attitude I would always say. She seemed to have grown a bit, both mentally and physically, though you wouldn't be able to pick it up with the guy standing on the left side of her. He looked taller than even I and rather scrawny-looking, sporting a black t-shirt that looked to be his length but not his width, black jeans with a chain going through the belt loops on his right leg, and black Van shoes. He looked like your stereotypical skater added with his long, black curly hair ruffling in the wind and his crazy eyes. He had what looked like a tennis-racquet bag strapped around his shoulder and something rectangular in his pocket, judging by the outlining on his jeans. He did _not _look like somebody you'd trust your wallet to.

Thankfully, on the other side of Sarah, was someone I recognized: a fashionable short girl whose name I think was Lauren. From what I could recall in our time together in middle school, she would normally wear high heels and was kind of ditsy. Today, however, she was neither of the two: her expression seemed serious and she was wearing leather sandals. Added to that, she was also wearing a lime-green, spaghetti strap shirt and faded skinny jeans. Her curly brown hair fell over her shoulders and, I couldn't be sure from this distance but, I think I could seem some cuts on her cheek. Next to her was ,who I assume is, her boyfriend, since he had a hand wrapped protectively around her waist. He dressed like Andy: a gray cardigan over a white shirt, dark-blue jeans, and blue Converse shoes. He looked a little less nerdy, however, since he seemed to be around my height plus the fact that he had short, blonde hair, so he looked more of a college student if anything.

Sarah carefully takes a step forward, as if the earth could crumble at any moment. "...Albert?" Her voice was just as amazing as I recalled; soft and kind of high pitched, comparable to a kitten. Oh god, if I'm not visibly blushing, I know for sure I'm melting on the inside.

I crack a huge grin. "S-Sarah!" As I shout that, all my friends turn their heads to me, eyes wide in surprise. I ignore them and run to her, greeting her with a big hug that she returns. Out the corner of my eye, I could see the tall skater having a hand on his racquet defensively, as if ready to attack. I honestly don't give a damn; after 2 years of being apart and being forced to see couples enjoying each others' presence in the park or cafes, I'm too happy to finally have my own joy.

I put her down and gaze at her features. Other than a few burn marks and scars that I don't believe have been there before, she still looked as beautiful as ever. Her face showed signs of relief; whether that be from seeing me or knowing it wasn't someone else, I'm wasn't completely certain.

"What are you doing here?" I inquire.

"Does that honestly matter?" She replies, "Oh man, to think we'd be sent _here_." She glances at the others behind me in uncertainty, most of whom were still in shock, save Orion and Alice, both looking rather troubled.

"Sent here?" I press on. "What do you mean?" She looks back at her group of friends, who appeared awkward.

"Uh...well, do you know...?" Started Sarah, but before she could finish, Alice cut in between us.

"We are aware of what's happening." Her tones made it seem as though Sarah shouldn't be existing, which kind of irritated me. "Where's the terminal?"

Sarah glares at her suspiciously. "Who're you and why do you want to know?" Her pupils shift apprehensively between her and I, no doubt getting the wrong idea. I shake my head quickly but her eyes don't show any change in emotions.

"Alice is my name," she thumbs backwards to our handsome supposed deity, "That's my partner, Orion. Having watched the news, I'm almost certain you're the one Botoku was talking about." The sound of a strangled scream is emitted from the tall boy, his eyes having a mix of anger and fear and his hands covering his mouth. Sarah looked just as distraught.

"How do you...," she shakes her head and meets her partner's eyes. They hold a silent conversation and nod simultaneously.

"Fine," She finally says after turning her attention back to Alice, "You still need to tell us why though."

"I need to have a chat with that bastard." Her poker face is ruined with a look of pure hate. She looks up and gets surprised, as if not realizing people were watching her. She coughs uncomfortably. "Also, I'm sure he'll have a DSP for us to copy unto devices for these guys." She continues, waving a hand in our direction. Both ladies nod in agreement. Alice is about to march onward until the tall guy raises a hand, palm up, right in Alice face, catching her by surprise.

"Wait!..You look like you know your shit, about as much as that asshole Blondie." The blonde one next to Lauren looks offended.

"Hey, rude!" He quips.

"Not you, idiot! I call you Phlipster." The other guy sighs in annoyance. "Anyways, we have some weird stuff on our DSP, and by 'we', I really just mean Lauren and I." With his long arms, he pats Lauren's head. "According to Botoku, he said not many DSP users have these functions."

Alice tilts her head to the side, which was admittedly kind of cute. "Functions? Wait...who are you again?"

The tall boy lifts his nose skyward; a prideful gleam in his eyes. "You are talking to the great...!"

"Ant." giggles Lauren.

"The tall guy's name is Ant? How ironic..." muses Alice.

"Anthony!" corrects the tall guy irritably. "Whatever, just...here look." He pulls out the square outlining in his pocket: a dark blue 3DS. While it seemed nothing more than your average hand-held game system, Ant held it as if, if he were to drop it, it would spell the end of the world. He handed it Alice, who had just as grim an expression.

She analyzes it when she turns it on. Her face darkened as she shakes her head. "This is...in Japanese. I apologize but I can't-"

"Oh, Japanese?" Mae, who was as silent as a mouse up until this point, snatches the device away and studies the screen. She nods her head thoughtfully. "Mirai Meru...Future Mail. Andy, I'm going to need your help deciphering this in detail; I see some complicated kanji going on there." He nods, happy to be of service. The rest of us shared confused looks, except for Alice, who seemed please.

"My brother also knows some Japanese. Let's continue on to my cafe," She smiles softly at Sarah's group, making her, for once, seem friendly. I think I could see some blushing on Ant's face. "I'm sure you're all tired from the travel: Its hard to adjust at first, but you'll learn soon that terminal travel is possibly the best way to go around." She looks at the rest of us, the smile unwavering. "As for you guys, it'll give us a chance to explain things." She nods reassuringly and marches on the path with Orion, leaving all of us in the back.

There was an awkward silence, think Albert think...I nod to myself and decide to introduce us.

"Well, uh, hi there!" Smooth start, bozo. "I'm sure you all know, I'm Albert and these are my friends." I gesture to Andy and Mae, who were both examining the screen and murmuring random things I couldn't hear, with the occasional gasp of delight at figuring something out. "The two nerds here are Andy and Mae." Mae looks up and pouts.

"Excuse me? You want to say that again?" She challenges.

"You want to start the tiebreaker now?" Mae and I have had this thing going on where we sometimes just fight each other to prove who's stronger. Last time, it was Mae who won and left me unable to use my left arm for a while, but I'll get her this time.

"Guys, please. Not in front of your girlfriend's friends." Andy says. I feel my face getting warm at Sarah being mentioned as my girlfriend. Her hands covering her cheeks showed evidence that she, too, didn't know how to feel about that.

"Fine," Mae huffs, "But we'll do this someday!" She returns to the device. I wave a hand towards the girl behind them, who was looking at Ant with interest. "The creeper over there is Kimberly." She glares at me then slyly walks up to Anthony, batting her eyes seductively.

"So...you go down my lane?" she asks with sickly-sweetness.

The boy named Ant pulls a devious grin and puts an arm around her. "Girl, for you? I'll go down the ends of the earth." Oh god, I think I'm going to be sick. The wave of nausea seems to pass over the others as well, showing that Ant was probably a male version of Kimberly. Nasty.

"Ignoring the weirdo over there," Sarah says, pinching the bridge of her nose in disgust, "These lovers here are Lauren and Phillip. You remember him, right Lauren?"

She nods, "Long time, no see, Aly!" I groan at the nickname that had people mistake me for a girl in middle school.

"You _still _use that?"

"Of course!" she laughs. Phil gives a caring smile and formally gives me a handshake.

"So you're the one Sarah talked so fondly about." I think I was smiling. "She's rejected numerous advancements from our number one lame-ass over there, supposedly waiting for you. It's nice to see her happy." He talked like a father, which was kind of strange, but still flattering nonetheless.

"Hee-Hey!" Orion yells in the distance. "Come on already, let's go-ho!" He quickly covers his mouth and looks at his hands, disturbed.

Anthony frowns. "Who is he calling a hoe?"

"You, probably." Sarah remarks, producing a glare from him that makes her laugh so sweetly. I wrap an arm around her. She looks up to me, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Come on, let's figure some stuff out." She nods and all we follow the demon-combating veterans.

**Author's Note: Oh god, this is so full of love, I think I'm going to puke. Kidding aside, I actually had a lot of fun writing this, getting all the characters together. Although, I do apologize for it being a little short and non-action-y. I ask, though, is there anything I can improve on my writing in general? Also, hush, I like Hell Siblings and your responses just made me laugh, hehe.**

_**Reviews are appreciated! **_


	8. Chapter 8

**Day 1: Introductory Lessons**

**Chapter 8**

_**Initializing Analysis**_

_**Subject: Mae B.**_

_**Age: 15**_

_**General Overlook: A girl wise beyond her years due to a horrific past. Calm, blunt, and stubborn, she now enjoys the childhood that was missing from her younger years, and searches for her father with deep-set motivations.**_

Mae's POV

"Are you fucking serious?" Were the first words to escape my mouth when we finally got to the largely anticipated cafe.

We were standing on a parking lot off to the side, where there were many cars scattered around the border, no doubt to get a nice view of the city below. The cafe was perched on the side of one of the tall hills surrounding Red Wing, Minnesota, like someone stuck a random block on a lump of green jell-o. The cafe itself was pretty sizable; its dimensions maybe being 20 ft. in height, 30 ft. in length, and 20 ft. in width, although there was probably more to it since the building seemed to be going inside the hill, and it was painted with different shades of lavender, roses, and yellows, making it visible from a large distance away. Large, clear windows wrapped around its perimeter, allowing us to view the people inside: couples enjoying each others' presence, a group of friends laughing over something, and various other people sitting on what looked like cushioned seats. The inside of just a bright as the outside, painted with mostly the same colors, and you could see somebody rushing around on the other side of a white, marble counter, a worker most likely. It probably sounded rude for me to say such a thing, but I guess the normal 'girly' things aren't too much of an appeal for me. It's the 21 century, for damn sakes, any gender can like whatever the fuck they want and are entitled to their own opinions.

"Oh my god, it's the cutest thing ever!" Shouted the only girl shorter than I was, Lauren. Take her for example, she dresses like one would expect a girl to, but I don't think she wears those clothes for others.

"…Well, points for effort. That view though…" whistles the annoying tall guy, Anthony, who stared wistfully to the side opposite of cafe, hand shading his eyes.

"Welcome to Wonderland Cafe!" Announced Alice, her hands above her head and beaming towards us as if we wouldn't have figured the name out from the large-as-hell sign on the top of the building facing us. The sign was rather interesting on its own: it was colored in a white-and-lavender checkerboard design and had a girl and a rabbit on either ends, rocking slowly and designed as if they were falling.

"Come inside! It's…_wonderful!_" She laughed at her own horrid pun, which I audibly groan at and continued inside, Orion following at her footsteps.

"Wow, that's huge!" exclaimed the blonde guy, Phil, which produced an immature sicker from Kim and I. He didn't seem to notice. "I wonder how much its budget is." That appeared to be the only thing that interested him. He wrapped an arm around Lauren's waist and they both smiled at each other in a warm way.

"C'mon, you can pick out anything you want." He said. Lauren clapped her hands and, grinning, they went inside together. _Cute…_I thought to myself, _Lame…but cute._

Albert and the girl, Sarah, followed next, discussing various things and catching each other up and what the other did. I don't think I've ever seen the big guy get so red before, well other than from anger that is, and he kept getting excited over something simple as talking about schools. Sarah looked really calm compared to him: her long, straight hair flowing behind her, a composed grin stuck on her face, glasses and eyes showing signs of large intelligence. I wonder how they ever got together in the first place; they were practically polar opposites.

"Did you still want that coffee?" Andy asks, coming up from behind me, hands behind his back in that cute way that always strikes the hearts of the many lovesick losers of our school. I smile and nod.

"I can still pay for it you know." I point out.

"No! I already promised and you might need your money for later. Besides, knowing you, you probably didn't eat any breakfast." As if on cue, my stomach growls loudly, making him laugh. "Told you." He says triumphantly.

Kim comes in between us, arms around both of our shoulders. "C'mon guys," She says, "The cute one is getting away!" I glance back at Anthony, who's still mesmerized our small town. I point at him and raise an eyebrow, puzzled.

"Oh, he's cute, but by the looks of it, we'll be stuck with him for quite a while, so might as well find some other eye-candy." I sigh at her response, this is going to be interesting.

"Do you also want me to buy some food for you?" Andy offers.

"Yes, I would love some food!" shouts Anthony, who was suddenly looming over all of us. Both Andy and I back away quickly, Andy giving a small squeak of surprise. Kim and he both laugh at our reactions and head on inside, chatting away with each other.

"Well, won't _this _be fun." I sigh. Andy nods in glum agreement and we both follow the rest of the group.

As I enter the air conditioned cafe, my eyes burn from looking at all the loud colors of the room; I thought these kinds of places were supposed to be dark and quiet? The floor matched the design of the sign outside, with the tables and seats hugging the walls just about the same color for the most part. In the front of us was the long, marble-white counter I saw outside running along the length of the cafe, showcasing various sweets, pastries, and delectable-looking cakes in glass cases under the tabletop. At the left end of the elongated stand were two tall glass refrigerators, adjacent to each other, also housing fulls pies and buckets of ice-cream. Next to those fridges was a thin walkway that led to some stairs going down into another doorway. I peered through that doorway but I couldn't see much of anything with it being dark.

"Well it's about time you got back!" Somebody from behind the counter complained. I looked at the source and my heart skipped a beat momentarily, a miracle considering that I had thought that organ died a long time ago.

The man was leaning over the counter, glaring at Alice and tapping his finger on the counter impatiently. He was incredibly thin, but the black, leather jacket he had on managed to hide that. Both his hair and eyes were a shade of red, the eyes being more obvious and his hair having a brown shade added to them, like he put some dye on it but didn't quite get the right color. His hair was flat and sticking out in different directions; messy like Anthony, but the thing is, it did the worker wonders while with Ant, it just made him look like a lazy guy who just woke up from sleep, A.K.A not attractive at all. His eyes squinted in suspicion as he looked over the rest of us.

"Shouldn't somebody else be working?" Alice responded, "I thought your shift wasn't until later."

He laughs drily, "Yeah it was: _your shift!_ I took over because no one could find you. You not answering your phone sure didn't help with that."

Alice quickly pulls out her phone, flips it open, and curses at the '5 missed calls' notification blinking on the home screen.

"My bad...I had important business to attend to." The man bangs the table with his fist.

"_My bad? _Alice, for god sakes, we were all worried! You could have gotten hurt, what if someone attacked you," He shot a look of accusation at the others and I, "And who are these people!?"

"The important thing I had to take care of." She answered through clenched teeth. Annoying, overprotective relatives; I could relate to that. I looked at the others: Andy was hiding behind Alice, no doubt scared for his life, the couples were glaring right back, and, of course, Ant and Kim were drooling over the admittedly handsome man who was yelling at us.

I look over at the rest of cafe, the customers now watching the scene in anxiety. I breathe a sigh and stare pointedly at the pissed off guy. He meets my eyes and holds the look for a moment, now clearly uncomfortable.

"What are you looking at?" He asks.

"Keep making your voice the thing of attention," I reply, "and you're going to be losing a lot of business." His head snaps up and looks around the room, as if just realizing that yelling at someone related to you in a public place was not the norm. I continue.

"If you're going to scold her, do it in private when you're home. All you're doing at the moment is making yourself look like the bad guy, and I doubt anyone wants that." He looks as if he's going to protest, but he swallows the words and breathes angrily through his nose, defeated.

"Fine..." He whispers, "But if anything happens to Alice, be sure I'll be coming after you." He straightens up and clears the throat, now beaming at us like none of that ever happened.

"Hello, welcome to the Wonderland Cafe! Is there anything I can help you with?" The public turn their attention back to each other/their food/whatever they were focused on before except for one guy who stuck out from everyone.

That was mainly due to his hair: a white color matching the counter. He was in the far right end of the store, sitting alone in a table with seats meant for two, staring at us with an amused smile plastered on his face. He looked rather young, no older than me, and had a crazy look in his eyes that I didn't like. Something else seemed off about his eyes, but I decided not to bother with it. With his dark clothes, it was probably just another weirdo boy going through his scene phase.

I'm suddenly pulled by my arm and directed to a table on the corner of the store, opposite of the boy, next to a window.

"Allow us to look over the menu options and we'll get back to you on that." Alice says in a voice matching the disgustingly sweet tone of the man, dragging me away from the counter. The man smiled and wave, but his eyes sent a clear message: 'Don't you dare try anything'.

The table was large and circular, the opening facing the center of the cafe like a large Pac-Man. The table itself was a black color while the seats were cushioned and colored pinkish-purple. Starting at the end and going clockwise were the people seated: Andy, Anthony, Kimberly, Alice, Me, then the opening, Lauren, Phillip, Sarah, and Albert. Orion was nowhere to be seen; bathroom break? At any other place, we wouldn't have been able to fit, but the table here was so spacious that we even had enough space to put bags and stuff in between us and still have a comfortable amount of room. Anthony slipped off the tennis bag off his shoulders, allowed it to clatter on the floor, and rubbed his limb.

"God damn, that thing was heavy as hell." He announced. A sound was heard under the table and a loud swear from Ant as he went down to nurse his now-bruised shin.

"Don't talk about that!" Sarah whispered very non-obviously. Alice giggled.

"There's no need to be violent; I already know there's a weapon or something in there right?" She said. Sarah yelped then turned red with embarrassment. Andy scooted a little farther from Anthony.

"It's only natural," Alice continued, "With what happened to you yesterday, the best option would be to carry an item for defense."

"You saw the fight?" Phil asked, worried.

"It was on the news," Andy chimed in, "Were those really demons that were attacking?"

Lauren nodded, "Of course! I'm still confused as to why nobody helped or screamed. And I'm really puzzled at how they all bought the whole 'this-is-a-magic-show' BS Anthony gave them."

Alice nodded thoughtfully, "Yes...on the news, it appeared to be other humans you were fighting with, with the occasional glitch that showed the person's true form. The DSP has that effect on non-users; to manipulate what is seen. Of course it can't cover up everything: the fire, for example, still appeared out of thin air, which is what the spectators looked at in awe." She looked at Anthony with some new-found interest. "Good thinking in covering it up as a magician's practice show."

His grin was full of pride. "Why thank you! I am best known for my quick wits, winning smile, and..." He leaned flirtatiously on Andy, "my amazing _features, _if you know what I mean." Andy turned red and starting talking nervously in rapid-fire.

"...Mind if I punch him?" Albert inquired darkly, knuckles cracking.

"Please do." Replied Phillip. _Bam!_ Anthony crumpled on the table, a red bump swelling on his head. Sarah sighed with a hint of relief. "Although, I think we all know what you're best known for: your loud mouth." Everyone shared a chuckle at that, except for Andy, who was still red, but now fussing over the unconscious flirt.

"So what exactly _is _the DSP?" Phillip asked, serious.

"The DSP, short for Demon Summoning Program, is basically your modern adaptation for, well summoning demons," She explained. "It was created somewhat recently, probably a little more than a decade ago, and is cause of all things great, both catastrophic and wonderful."

"What do you mean by that?" Kim asked, looking with wonder.

"Like things that have made in international news was caused by a person, but that person most likely had some help from a powerful demon. The creation of the first successful space shuttle? Secrets obtained by Thoth. The Renaissance? Invoked by a couple of bold Principalities. Ice Age? A _lot _of Jack Frosts working tirelessly together under a pissed-off King Frost. Back then, demons has to be conjured manually, with rituals and other complicated things, or the demon themselves came on their own, but accident or intentional. Now, with the DSP, demons can be summoned more easily and are bound by their summoner after that person passed their initial test."

"The initial test is the first summoning that happens, right? Is it always required?" Asks Sarah. Alice shakes her head.

"Not always, though I'm still trying to obtain information on that since its only a rumor to me at the moment. The regular summoning, however, is probably the most secure since it pretty much lets the demon know that they're here for a reason and, if the summoner wins, that they really have no choice."

"And if they lose...?" Asks Andy, already fearing the answer. Alice shrugs.

"As you saw before, not all demons are harmful. But if they do defeat the summoner, they get a meal and a free body to shape and mold to their liking, and just go on life as humans from there on. From what I heard, the human way of life is much better than living as demons, unless they're _that_ power-hungry or were gods in their past lives. They just do as they please and try to live as normally as possible. I'm sure you might have met some people who were actually demons in disguise, probably even been friends with them. Demons are pretty similar to humans in their differing personalities and have some rather interesting stories to tell." That thought made me shudder; one of the people I talked to could have died and been a demon and I wouldn't have even realized it. Alice notices this and gives a sad smile.

"It's not as bad as you think. If people were to summon demons in the first place, that must mean their life was pretty bad to begin with and were looking for an escape of some sort." She leaned in towards me a little closer, as the others began discussing things on their own, and whispered, "Thank you helping me out earlier; things would've gotten awkward if not for you."

I smiled back, "No prob. I know how it is to have someone crashing on your shit and get unnecessarily angry. Who is he anyways?"

"My brother, Ace. He's been...on edge lately. I apologize for his behavior."

I shrugged, letting her know I didn't think much of it.

"Did you guys want anything? It'll be on the house, since I think you'll need the extra energy and for helping me out." Anthony suddenly jumped up from his deathbed, the table, startling Andy who instinctively hugged Albert.

"I thought you'd never ask!" He exclaimed. She sighed in annoyance, but got our orders and got up to go the other side of the counter, barking at Ace to help her work with the instruments of cooking. Anthony rubbed the red swelling on his forehead pensively.

"Man, was that really fucking necessary?" He sighed. Albert only grunted in reply, ignoring him.

"Hey Ant...you...talked with your cousin last night right?" Asked Lauren. Her tone made it seem like that was a bad thing; unless his cousin was some murderer, what the hell was wrong with that? He nodded gravely.

"Yeah, I mean if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been able to figure out that terminal shit. Thinking back on it, he also kind of confirmed whatever that Alice chick was saying, about the whole 'fucking-with-whatever-normal-people-see' thing with the DSP."

"Then what about us?" Kim quipped. "While we were walking over here, a bunch of demons started showing themselves, like the glitch thing, and we don't have that DSP on us." The El Paso group stared at us, wide-eyed and confused. Before they could barge us with questions, Andy quickly saved the day.

"Remember; It was because we were with Orion. His occupation allowed for us to see the reality of the people. Speaking of which, where did he go?" We all looked around the room, but the deity was nowhere to be found, and I doubt that guy went the bathroom: nobody can have bladder problems that bad.

"Who is he anyways?" Anthony asked.

Andy looked at me expectantly. I nodded and my group gave theirs a crash course of things that happened to us. Relaying the events that happened, it kind of sounded dumb and out of this world, but their group were good listeners: keeping quiet most of the time unless they needed a question answered. Alice came back halfway through, when we were just getting to the part about her intervention, and spread a bounty of food. Cheesecake slices, scones, empanadas amongst other delicious looking things I didn't know the names of, and enough coffee and lattes to make an old man run a whole mile without even tiring.

"Oh my god, thank you so fucking much." I ended up saying. She smiled and took her place next to me.

"No problem! Now, where were you guys at?" We continued our story, munching on our snacks all the while, and we finally ended it off just at the point that Orion staggered.

"Oh, Alice that reminds me: where is Orion?" I asked. She tilted her head to the side, looking at me as if the answer should be really obvious.

"Orion only shows himself when he wants to be seen, so I guess that means he warmed up to you guys. He doesn't really like my brother and the feeling is mutual, so he disappears until we have can some privacy." Lucky him.

"So that means that...Orion is also a demon?" Sarah asks. We nod.

"He's bound to me." Alice quickly adds, picking up on her discomfort. "And even if he wasn't, he wouldn't hurt anyone trust me." Sarah nods, but you can see she still wasn't fully convinced.

Alice looks over at Anthony and asks, "I believe I overheard you saying something about your cousin? What's his significance?"

"He's that asshole, Botoku." He explains.

She nearly chokes on a slice of apple pie at the sound of that. I also notice that, off in the distance, that weird boy from earlier perks up his ears and looks over at us again. Alice dabs her mouth with a napkin and clears her throat.

"Did he give you the DSP?"

"Yeah, that's why he's a douche."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Er, what do you mean? Elaborate on what?"

"Did he tell you something, anything unusual?"

"Y-yeah if I remember correctly..."

"What did he tell you!?" Throughout this conversation, Alice was raising her voice, as if just talking about this Botoku person angered her. At that last question, she banged the table furiously with both her palms, making Anthony shrink into the seat as much as possible.

"Whoa there girl, calm your dick! Does making a scene run in the family or something?" He replied. She look around the room, meeting the eyes of the public, then sat back down in her seat guiltily. Anthony straightened himself and took a sip of coffee.

"Now, gather around children! Uncle Ant is about to tell a long story." He said that in what was a horrible impression of some movie star. His friends groaned but we all quieted ourselves to listen. This outta be interesting...

**Author's Note: Another semi-short chapter, my bad. This ended up turning out slightly different than usual, but I'm actually kind of proud of this, getting all the characters to interact together. I noticed that, for some reason, Chapter 5 has more readers than Chapter 4. Am I missing something here? Oh well... Next up: confusing flashbacks!**

** The Hell Sibling- Both your comments just confused the heck out of me: Hades are you O.K. There? Lucifer, I apologize but...who's KO?**

** random person- Sure! Again, I'll probably only be able to help with your everyday writing things, but I'll do the best I can!**

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


	9. Chapter 9

**Day Before: Beginning of the End**

**Chapter 9**

Anthony's POV

"Oh the pain! This suffering, relentless pain!" I moaned. "This is it Medusa. This is the day that I will no longer enlighten you with my humor or wisdom. This is the day that I die!"

"Oh, you're already doing the world that favor? It's not even my birthday!" Sarah replies, her voice dry and loaded with sarcasm. I stick out my tongue but, being in the back seat while she was driving, she obviously couldn't have seen it.

She agreed to take me home in her car since the lovers already made a blood pact 10 years ago that if they ever had the chance to be alone with each other, they would. My body was sprawled out on the entirety of the back seats, sore as hell from whatever skirmish we just had with whatever the hell those things were. For the most part of the ride, we made our way through the desert and city in silence, both of us unable to formulate the tornado of thoughts in our heads into articulate sentences. The stars outside the window were a nice distracter and these cushioned seats felt nice upon my head. I was pretty much ready to fall asleep…actually I already did.

The nap didn't feel like it took any longer than 5 minutes, but Sarah shook me awake in that apparent time, accidentally touching a fresh bruise and making me yelp awake.

"Sorry." She said with the utmost sincerity; a miracle on her part. "We're here."

It takes me a couple of minutes to fully digest my surroundings. Multiple house lights were on, saturating the normally quiet neighborhood with oranges and yellows originating from the windows. Laughing and chatter was also apparent with music being blasted from several houses (I could hear a mariachi from one house; very nice). _Summer really is here _I thought to myself.

My own home was the only modestly silent one, like a quiet nerd stuck in a group of rebels. Its lights were also on, but generally in the 1st floor of the house and I could tell that not all of them were on. It was also devoid of music: the only sounds that could be heard were those of the T.V. and the clattering of dishes under running water from an open window. I sighed and picked myself up gingerly, a worrisome Sarah hovering near me.

"You need me to, like, help you to the door or something?" She asked.

I shake my head. "Please, woman. You're making this weirder than it needs to be."

I try for a smile, but even that kind of hurts. She huffs in response, a promising signal that shows that she's not going full on Mom-mode. The silence hangs in the air awkwardly as we both stare at the house. I scan the window for any figures that were foreign to me, but find nothing.

"You're going to ask…right?"

"Of course!" I yell, indignant. "That bastard almost fucking killed me! You think I'm not going to get answers out of him?" She nods silently, the lights making her eyes bright. I tend to not look at her for long (that would be _pleading_ for some snarky remark), but in that moment, I notice how nicely her dark hair falls over her shoulders, realizing just how frightened she really was, just how surreal everything was.

Oh god, I think I'm starting to like her.

I break the silence with my everlasting charm. "So…are you going to unlock the door or do you actually want me to stay in here with you? Cause I have _lots_ of pick-up lines I want to practice."

She blinks twice as if coming out of a trance. "What…? Eww, gross no, get out." A clicking noise is heard throughout the vehicle and I step out, strapping the bag around my shoulder.

"Anthony," she calls out. I turn and meet her eyes, her head sticking out of the passenger window. "Call any of us if anything happens, alright?"

"Calm down, Medusa, it's me! If I can survive being friends with you for several years, I can survive anything! Quit being a freaking mom and get some rest." She does her 'Sarah-equivalent of a middle finger' thing at me in response, making me grin.

She retreats hesitantly into the car and drives away. I wave as she leaves and my smile collapses the instant she turns on the curb. If she's worried for me, I _know_ that things are going to be bad. I take a deep breath and head into the place currently housing the person that almost got me killed.

"I'm home!" I shout, closing the door behind me. I walk into the kitchen, the room to the right of the entrance, and find my mom there, who beams at me.

"Welcome back, birthday boy! Did you enjoy your day?" She asks.

"Is it not obvious with all this?" I return, waving a hand across my face and arms, showcasing the bruises and burns. Gasping, she rushes over me and begins shooting a thousand questions and fussing over me like your typical mother. I wince a couple of times as she grabs my arms and pokes at a few of the more purple colored skin.

"Calm down, it's just the usual teenager stuff! You know, being a rebel, doing the illegal." I finally say as she fusses over how bad my face looks (ow, my self-esteem). She folds her arms and glares at me, obviously not amused.

"Illegal? I did _not _raise my son to be a lawbreaker! I thought Sarah and Lauren would keep you in check! What happened?"

"Well, it's not a birthday if it ain't a party, right?" I laugh and walk to the living room, impolitely ignoring her scolding.

I plunk myself down on the couch, dropping my bag into the seat next to me and rubbing my sore shoulder. My Dad and sister are watching a soccer game on T.V. with ferocious intensity.

"Go, go, go! Kick that bastard if you have to just get the damn ball!"

"C'mon, you call that a kick!? My grandma throws better balls than that piece of shit, let's go!"

"Oh, oh...GOAL!" My dad and sister jump up simultaneously, hugging each other in delight. How embarrassing.

"I'm back." I quip. My sister shrieks and quickly punches my arm out of instinct, right on an already-established bruise. "Ow! What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

"Dude, don't do that you scared the crap out of me," was all she had to say for herself. She glances at me for a split second, goes back to the screen, then double takes and looks at me with an expression of concern. "What the hell happened to _you_?"

"Just came back from combating a demon apocalypse; what do you think?" I chuckle drily.

"You're _so_ dumb," she responds. She has absolutely _no_ idea of the irony of that comment.

I sigh and look around. So far, no sign of killer psycho Asian relative in sight. My family turn their attention back to the screen.

"Uh, didn't you say someone was coming over?" I ventured.

"What?" My dad asks, taking a swig of beer. "Oh yeah, your cousin. He said he was tired so we're putting him to share a room with you."

"Are you serious!?" I shout, outraged. "It's my birthday and I can't even sleep in my own room in peace?"

"Oh, quit complaining and go say hi to him. He actually mentioned you at one point and asked to be put with you. Have we ever introduced you to him before?"

_If you had,_ I think to myself, _I would've already had a grave set for me at that time. _I shake my head in response which produces a shrug from my dad, another gulp of alcohol, and more yelling at the soccer team (because they can totally hear him). I breathe another sigh, trudge up the stairs toting the bag, and stop at the door of my own room.

I'm nervous and I find this dumb. Who actually gets worried of going into their own room? What am I to expect when I open the door? Is he going to come at me, brandishing a knife or some other kind of murder weapon? Am I going to find a satanic circle or some weird-ass ritual being set up for me to go up as a sacrifice? I steel myself, holding my bag ready in case I need to whack someone upside the head, and enter the room. I was not ready to witness what I did.

A man turns, just barely putting on a shirt, and we have an awkward stare off. In that moment, I examine the stranger: almost as tall as me, definitely Asian with the eyes, and having very bright, very unnatural blond hair that covered his left eye, like a scene boy. He was thin but lean, apparent with the abs and arms muscles and his face was slightly feminine. My hands slowly crawl up to my own face and cover my eyes. Oh no, he's _hot._

"Ah! I was wondering when you would get here!" The man says, bright and cheery and totally not uncomfortable at all.

"Who are you and why are you naked!?" is the only thing I could stammer out, which is very surprising coming from me. He looks down at his own body thoughtfully.

"Technically, I'm not naked; only shirtless. But if that's what you're referring to then I can oblige. I don't see what the big fuss is." He puts on the black V-neck shirt, showing off a defined collarbone. "We're both men after all.

"That," I think out loud, "is the beginning of too many homo scenes in books. Actually...probably of all of them."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

He raises a quizzical eyebrow, which I ignore, and plop down on the bed, letting out a long sigh of relief. I notice a large suitcase off to the corner of the room, very neat and thin, taking up little space. I also notice what seems to be a blanket rolled up to the side, which the man undoes and lays out of the floor.

He notices me staring. "Is there any off chance that you'll allow me the pleasure of sleeping on the bed?"

"Nope." I answer quickly. He lets out a small sigh, most likely expecting the answer (then why ask?) and continues working with the blankets.

"So what's your name?" I inquire, my voice coming off a little more squeaky and childlike than intended.

"Botoku." He answers simply, not looking up from his apparently hard work. The roll finally lays flat and he fishes through his backpack, pulling out a laptop, some papers, and other nerdy things. I give myself a mental face palm; figures the person I feared the most ended up being the biggest geek ever.

"So, uh..." I try. This guy does not do conversations. "Why are you in the country? Business trip?" He stops for a second, as if contemplating an excuse.

"Yes…a gaming corporation wanted my input in a certain aspect of its upcoming product. I also used that request as an opportunity to travel. Call it childish, but it's been my dream to see the world." He chuckles at that, probably finding it strange. I don't find the humor in it, but whatever floats his boat I guess.

"So this is the first time you've been in El Paso?" I inquire.

"Yes. I intended to come earlier, visit my relatives you know." He said the word relatives kind of awkwardly, like he wasn't used to it.

"So then where have you been?"

"Japan, of course, as well several countries in Europe, Africa, and South America." The tone he uses kind of angers me, saying it as though it's absolutely no big deal to see 20+ different cultures in a lifetime. The furthest I've gone was to Mexico and it's practically the same thing as here, just with a lot more Spanish.

I decided to cut to the chase. "Nice present you gave me." He turned around to put away clothes in my drawers but I could swear he had a massive grin on his face.

"Oh yes! I assumed you received it. I apologize for the extra equipment; I wasn't entirely sure which was to your best liking." I scowled at the back of his blond head.

I dropped the bomb. "Did I mention that it almost killed me and my friends?"

He turned around to face me and the look he gave me was so creepy, I actually sunk further into my bed. He had the same crazed look that the demon Waira had.

He laughs at my reaction. "You had read the letter, had you not? It was a warning; you should've known what was coming."

"Excuse me? Because it's totally fucking normal for demons to just pop out of your everyday cell phone, right? Oh yeah, I see my friend's fairies on a daily basis." I glared at him. So it wasn't a mistake: this man fully intended to kill me with beings from another realm.

"Do not misjudge; I did not entrust you with a DSP just to commit a genocide that I could've done with a lot less risks involved," he said, reading my thoughts supposedly. "I gave it to you to protect you."

Now that just pissed me off.

"Protect me!?" I screamed, jumping off from the bed and standing tall in front of my apparent cousin. "You think that was going to protect me!? Are you actually looking at me or are you just a blind dumbass?" I rolled up the sleeves of my tattered shirt, allowing him vision of my various burns, scrapes, and other injuries. He regarded them with such disinterest, he couldn't tell if he was actually looking or if he really _was_ blind.

He calmly put down my sleeves and carefully laid a hand on my shoulder. "First off, I need you to cease the unnecessary yelling before I even bother to enlighten you. We don't want your family knowing of this." I let out a shaky breath through my nose and sat back down on my bed. He pulls out a nearby chair and sits on it backwards, head resting on his arms and staring at me with as much seriousness as a school counselor.

"Listen closely for I refuse to repeat myself. Something catastrophic is predicted to occur in the coming days, most likely ending in one week from now." I opened my mouth to say something, but he quickly puts up his index finger, cutting me off.

"_Listen_. I know you were most likely going to ask a stupid question asking, 'What's going to happen?'." He said that in a high pitched voice, no doubt in mockery of me. Douche bag.

He continues. "What exactly it is, I don't know. All I know is that it involves demons crossing over to our world. How? Again, I'm not sure. All I am certain of is that it _will _happen."

"How the hell are you so sure that some stupid demon apocalypse is supposed to happen? I literally joked about that to my sister a while ago." He lets out a sigh that was the exact same kind that my mom would use: _Kids._

"Have you even glanced at the home screen of the DSP app?" I was about to yell at him that _Of course I did!_ But I shut my mouth as I thought back on it and realize that I didn't. He shakes his head in disappointment.

"...By the looks of it, you're going to need all the help you can get."

He slides over to me and reaches into my pocket, pulling out the 3DS that was stuffed in there and ignoring my angry protests. After a bit of random tapping on the screen, he sits next to me and shows me the screen. On the annoyingly bright device is what looks like an e-mail, with the receiver's address (did I put that down?) and the subject on the top screen and the text on the bottom. Where the sender's address was supposed to go was some weird Asian-type text. I look at the rest of the letter on the bottom screen, thinking it was just a weird typo or something as screwy as the app itself but notice that the _whole _thing is in the same text. Botoku looks at me gravely like I should understand the direness of the situation.

"...Why the fuck is this in Chinese?" I ask after a bit of silence.

"_Japanese,"_ he corrects, irritation evident in his voice. "You just read all that and that's the only thing you have to say?"

I laugh at that. "Read? You actually think I know Japanese?" He frowned.

"Doesn't everybody?" I give him an incredulous look; my turn to sigh now. "Don't you know even a little?" He continued.

I shake my head. "Dude, I live in _El Paso_. Why would I actually need to know that?"

He pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "OK, OK, fine. I'll read you the text." He moved a little closer to me and, in response, I move a little further. He tries again while I just move again.

"I can see it just fine from this distance, just quit being a creep and read it already." I say after another attempt. He glares at me but does as told.

"The subject of the mail is called 'Future Mail'. Throughout the letter itself you can see various times being posted as well as today's date up at the top. Like here, for instance," He points at the time _21:30_. "This is where your summoning was scheduled to happen, and it did."

I thought about that in my head. What time did we do all the fighting? "That time...is the same as 9:30 pm, right?" He nods as if that was obvious.

"I forget that you Americans have entirely different measurements. Rather stupid if you ask me."

"Well, I didn't," I say, ignoring his angry eyes. "So then...what? Was the summoning supposed to happen at that time, even if I hadn't activated the computers?"

He shakes his head. "This was just something predicted, not necessarily something that was supposed to happen."

"Uh, don't you mean 'recorded'?" I think back and remember that Kisuke was nowhere to be found after the incident. I scowl. "That asshole probably..."

"No." Says Botoku with the utmost certainty. "_Predicted_. Look at the time the mail was sent."

"It says...6:45!?" My jaw drops, who the hell would wake up _that_ early!?...Wait that shouldn't be the main focus.

Botoku nods gravely as I give him a shocked look. "How the hell can one figure out that demons are even real? Let alone actually predicting a summoning."

"The demons are not the issue," he explains. "Those have been here since the beginning of time and been used frequently to change the world. The DSP, on the other hand, is relatively new and since I was not the creator of it, I don't know how exactly the original programmer went about to making such an incredible phenomenon."

"Are you serious?" I didn't know whether to dismiss all the things this guy was saying or to be astounded by the fact that he isn't the one responsible for this thing.

"I have a theory that those responsible for the newsletters are utilizing a demon, or at least some otherworldly being or creature, and posting the results for users with access to this mail to see. Is it a warning of some sort? What are his or her intentions?" It was pretty clear that Botoku was now rambling on and it was making my head hurt.

"OK, hold on there, Einstein." I interrupt, massaging my temples. He stops talking as if just realizing that I was listening the whole time (well sort of). "Before you talk me to sleep, you never answered my question: how the hell were you protecting me?"

He stares at me dumbly for while (very reassuring) then answers. "As I stated before, it seems as though the world is going to fall. I got you the DSP so you could get some early training and not fall victim to the crisis like many of the general populace are predicted to do. I don't guarantee your survival with the next coming days but it was predicted that you would manage the event, and you did." He gives a prideful smile. "Now, you know some of the basics and obtained skills that will no doubt be useful for this situation."

I shake my head in frustration. Demons, DSP, mail that can predict the future. Argh, it's too much! I lay down on the bed and groan.

"Ah, rest is important! I understand." He gets off and puts away all his equipment. "I won't make any promises, but I hope to see you tomorrow."

He turns off the lights and gets comfortable in his sleeping bag, soon softly snoring. God...does he have to sound all bright and cheery about this? I turn to my side and stare at the weird guy who just told me there was going to be some 2012 shit going on soon. His blond hair was so bright, I could still see it clearly even with the lights off. There were way too many questions buzzing around in my head and while he did answer a few, he just really created a lot more. I decided against thinking about and closed my eyes, my body shutting down like it hasn't slept in 5 years.

**I. Am. So. **_**Sorry**_**. Man this is so late, my bad. School and real life have been kind of tough on me and I've only been able to work on bits and pieces here and there. Hopefully this chapter clears up some of what the main plot is going to be and spring break is soon to be here, so maybe I'll get back on schedule?**

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


	10. Chapter 10

**Day 1: Introductory Lessons**

**Chapter 10**

_**Initializing Analysis**_

_**Subject: Alice Q.**_

_**Please wait a moment.**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

_**Error! No information has been applied for this subject.**_

_**Analysis failed**_

Alice's POV

"Then the next day, the whack-o left an e-mail thing in the DSP with a bunch of number and letters which at first I thought were just random stuff, so I instead read the stuff that was legible and saw that he gave me the directions to the terminal at El Paso. He also wrote how finding Kisuke was vital for today and also said how the random jumble was actually the code to get over here. I got the rest of gang, showed them this, and…well now we're here!" finished Anthony, opening his arms as if at the end of theater play.

After a fair bit of silence, Bridgett was the first to comment. "That was, by far, the _worst_ explanation I have ever heard in my life." I suppressed a chuckle as the tall boy threw her the middle finger.

"Wait, you never told us his reason for coming here before," Sarah points out. "And more importantly, how does Botoku even know about Kisuke?" Anthony opened his mouth to answer, but not a sound was produced. He looked down in thought.

"Uh…whoops, I forgot to ask." A sound is heard under the table followed by a yelp from Anthony. He goes down to nurse his most likely bruised shin, grumbling something about Medusa, while the rest of us mull over his statement.

"So what part of the story was new to you guys?" I asked, directing the question at the El Pasoan group. "Judging from what you just said, it seems Anthony had new details that you were not aware of before. I'm also assuming that there is extra information he might've beheld from the rest of us."

"Wow, rude, thanks for the trust!" Anthony yelled from below.

"You have no right to complain, freak!" Sarah shouted back, deriving the attention of several other customers in the brightly colored café. I noticed that there wasn't as many people as before; other than us and my brother, who was continuously glaring at the group and I, there was only 3 other people present.

"Sorry about that," said Sarah, looking at me apologetically. "But yeah, you're right: the Kisuke talk wasn't the only thing he left out of on us. For example…" She was cut off by the young, natural blond man.

"Hold on Sarah," he intercedes. He regards the others, myself included, with a hint of suspicion in his blue eyes. "Should we really be telling you guys all this?"

The girl named Lauren lets out a gasp that is a mix of astonishment and anger and gives what I assume is her boyfriend a look that harbors the same emotions. "Phil, why would you even say that!?"

"Sorry, it's just…we've barely known these people for about 30 minutes. Do you guys even believe us or are you yourselves possibly crazy and just agreeing with what we're saying because it coincides with whatever thoughts are in your head? The only one of us who have a connection with any of you is only Sarah with…" He looks at her and chooses his words carefully, "With someone who seems to be important to her.

I nod in understanding; it's only natural for somebody to feel some sort of distrust. However, as Anthony had pointed out before, I confirmed many of the things Botoku had mentioned and knew about terminals and things of the like probably longer than everyone here. In fact, if anything, it should be the Minnesotans that should be holding these doubts, although not any longer since they have been attacked already and seen some humans in their true forms. I relay these thoughts vocally to him and he seems to agree, although his vision still holds a bit of skepticism.

"Well, first off I think you guys should probably take a look at the information from the source." Lauren begins. "Anthony, can you show them your DS?

He gets up from the table, bumping his head on it on his way up, and pulls out the device from his pocket: a rectangular computer, no larger than your average book, of dark blue color. _He uses the same medium as I do _I thought to myself as he flipped it open and messed with it a bit. He passed the handheld to Andy first, who scanned the screen and then passed it to Albert, who did the same. It was passed around to everyone not from El Paso and I examined the writing when it got to me:

_A8742MN256704TE3284_

_Dear Ant (may I call you that?),_

_ I apologize for my absence this morning; I had important matters that must be attended to, but I do wish to help you as today's _Future Mail _predicts the death of somebody who will be very important to you in the coming days. This person may also end up saving your life when it is your name displayed on the list of deaths to occur. I'm not saying it is an absolute necessity, although if the events of today do go as scheduled, future endeavors will prove to be highly difficult. The cause of death for this person is due to a demon outbreak in which he attempts divert, although his plan backfires and, being surrounded and injured, will eventually die. At the moment, you're probably thinking that the cons outweigh the pros, but I implore you to save this life since the subject at hand is one who you wish to derive answers from: Kisuke Higashi. In the Future Mail, there is an image displaying him in his final moment which, knowing your soft heart, should affect you emotionally and sway your opinion. However, the location of the demonic genocide is at Red Wing, Minnesota, and I doubt you can afford any form of transportation that goes the optimal speed. As such, I will allow you the means of the fastest transportation I know of (which, incidentally, I used to make my travel this morning): the Terminal. It is a very large, highly-advanced machine that allows for instantaneous movement, but is only accessible to DSP users who have the code to get to other terminals. They are many spread throughout the world and are a well-kept secret, so I suggest you don't go spilling this information to everyone (not that it would matter—even if you attempt to do so, many would think you're mental). The code above is directed to Red Wing, Minnesota, but it won't just drop you to wherever Kisuke is at; you'll need to find him yourself. Here are the directions to the terminal in your city:_

There was a long string of sentences including street names foreign to me and metric-unit lengths. I scrolled passed it all until I found the rest of the writing that was actually relevant.

_You will most likely be attacked by various demons on the way now that you're a DSP user, so I suggest you tread carefully and find a suitable form of defense._

I eyed the tennis bag held closely to Anthony. It clattered loudly when it fell to the floor, something that I'm sure an actual racquet wouldn't do, so I assumed it held a metallic blade of some sort.

_When you do happen to find Kisuke, I suggest you keep him down by force: he will attempt to escape if given the possibility, so after you deal with the threat, surround him and flood him with your tedious questions. I hope this information was useful for you and if I have the time, I'll think about installing an automatic translator in your system._

_B.G._

I let out a breath of anger; that was Botoku alright. Nobody else would believe adding a program that should've already been installed would be a suitable reward for risking your life.

Mae gave me a quizzical look. "It seems like you've already known this Botoku person for a while. It also looks like you hate his fucking guts. What's up?"

The others look at me expectantly as well. I sighed, knowing this couldn't have been avoided but still not preferring to share the story.

"He's been…giving me trouble. Lots of trouble. First off, I should admit that I knew about you guys for several days and what was to happen." I announce, referring to the El Paso group. All but Phil looked surprised.

"Yeah…I kind of assumed so, since you seemed a little too calm about all this." He returned, arms folded and frowning still. "Even if you have dealt with this before, seeing DSP users isn't a common thing, I would imagine."

I nodded and stared guiltily at the table. "I…didn't want more people to be hurt. Although, annoyingly, I see Botoku's point about recruiting you guys: if I plan to revoke the whole "end of the world" situation, and I am, it would be helpful to have new allies around. Although, I found it risky; what if you hadn't succeeded in taming the demons that had been summoned? I didn't want more people involved with this unless they were in full understanding of the consequences. I tried arguing this point a couple of times when I contacted Botoku, but of course that bastard is too prideful and narcissistic to listen to anybody other than himself."

"O.K., slow down there." Anthony said, shaking his head in confusion. "First off: why do you have his number?"

"We've…run into each other several times in the past and had similar goals. We thought it the best to have some form of communication in case something were to come up again. Also…" I thought about sharing the times he had visited and attempted to instill something, but thought against it. I shook my head.

"I saved his life several times, as he did mine, so we both know how to work well together," I lied. The others nodded in understanding except for Mae, who squinted her eyes but said nothing.

"All right," continued Ant, "if that's the case, how come you didn't do anything to stop it yourself; or at least tell us something?"

"Because I didn't have any way to get a hold of you people. I don't have the code to El Paso's terminal, I didn't know where he was going, and heck I didn't even know any of your names. It was impossible." I answered.

That answer didn't seem to satisfy him. He opened his mouth to say more, but I was instead focused on something else.

As I was facing the window, I noticed a group of people that didn't seem…quite right. A scraggly old man hobbled over to entrance, wearing a suit that seemed much too hot for our current weather, surrounded by two ladies in rather skimpy outfits and two smaller children running in circles and throwing what seemed liked baseballs at each other. The others followed my line of vision and also watched the strange group as they entered the café. Instead of going straight to the counter, the old man made straight for us instead.

"Give us the code." The old man demanded.

"Code…sir?" I replied, acting dumb. That command confirmed my suspicion.

The old guy wavered for a bit and looked at his group uncertainly. One of the girls pushed him out of way and glared at me, hands on her hips.

"Stop playing stupid; we know you came from a terminal. I can smell the Magnetite on you guys."

"Smell?" Quipped Anthony. He tugged on his shirt and sniffed at it, confused. I silently closed his DS and hid it under the table, passing it Mae who thankfully understood and passed it to Anthony.

"Magnetite! Magnetite! We want Magnetite!" Chanted the children, who were running around the old man still throwing baseballs at each other. No…they weren't baseballs. As one missed and hit the chair, it seemed to melt and disappear while the child produced another one instantly. I don't think there are shorts with pockets that can easily hide that many balls.

"Listen here, bitch." The girl said, leaning in closer and allowing me vision of her teeth, or rather, fangs. "Give us the code to wherever you came from and no one here will get hurt. We got places to need to be, and if I have to pry it out of your dead hands, I'll gladly comply."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the others getting antsy: Andy started sinking further into his seat as well as Kim moving further away from us while Albert and Mae stared apprehensively at the new people. On the other hand, the El Paso group silently reach into their pockets and bags, already aware of who these people really were and ready to attack. I made eye contact with Phillip and within that gaze, I saw temporary trust: something that said "Just say the word and we'll handle this."

I couldn't help my chuckle, which seemed to throw the demon in disguise off.

"W-What's so funny?" She said, attempting to keep up the threat in her voice, but failing miserably.

"I have to admit," I replied, flashing her a wicked grin, "you got guts for a minor demon. Orion, let's begin!"

With that command, all hell broke loose.

_**Author's Note: Wow…months since I haven't posted and this sad excuse of a chapter is all I have to show up for it…I apologize deeply. I also got an internship with a large company throughout the summer, so it will also be difficult to update then, but I'll still try! Thank you all so much for your patience!**_

_**Reviews are appreciated!**_


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